I have never made a cutting board before…the project is done but i know once i add oil i will lose the design a little. Is there something food grade that i can highlight my entire design with so it ‘stands out’ like it does currently. Then add oil to protect.
Its depth is only .008" so resin is not an option. Paint would be best - food grade?
TIA
Hygienic Evaluation of Wooden Cutting Boards: Microbiological Parameters pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
“In the trials, maple cutting boards exhibited a significant reduction in E. coli detection rates to the detection limit of 1.7 log10 cfu/cm2 after just two hours, even without cleaning. While S. aureus showed delayed reduction on the cutting board surfaces, HDPE boards presented overall higher detection rates compared to those made of sugar maple wood.”
So best practice appears to be bare wood with no oil for reducing bacterial colonization. Bare wood has less bacteria than HDPE cutting boards
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Thanks for the scolding haha
Its Walnut fyi
Looking at the full text of the article it appears that the maple boards were finished with bees wax or linseed oil. I think it is probably important to finish the wood with something otherwise it will deteriorate with repeated washing. I am glad to see that the study authors did apply a finish and discussed that in their findings. Oil seemed to be better than wax and oil but both were better than HDPE.
In addition to manual cleaning, manufacturers recommend applying oil or wax regularly for sealing and protection of wooden cutting boards against moisture penetration (Ak et al., 1994a). After maintenance (Table 1), no significant patterns were observed between untreated maple cutting boards (new and used) and maple cutting boards (new and used) treated with linseed oil. It is worth noting that the new maple cutting boards, examined in this study, were treated with beeswax after production, a coating absent on the used boards, since they were subjected to daily household use and handwashing for four weeks without maintenance. However, cutting boards subjected to maintenance with oil and wax displayed overall significantly higher mean detection rates than those treated with linseed oil or untreated maple cutting boards, presumably due to the additional sealing provided by the wax. Nevertheless, following the cleaning, the bacterial counts on all cutting boards were significantly reduced under the detection limit of 1.7 log10/cm2.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0362028X25001280?via%3Dihub
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With regards to the design standing out on this I think the oil may be enough. I find that when I apply finish, the carved parts generally stand out better than when they are not finished. The next best would have been to do an inlay with a more contrasting wood but I think that ship has sailed. I also would not want to go deeper on a cutting board that is going to get used. It just means more places for food to get stuck. I don’t know about paint either. paint is something I try to stay away from on all my projects. And not because I don’t think paint should be used but because I hate painting.
Biomedical engineer here with 35 years of designing implantable medical devices.
There is a reason that I linked to pubmed. If you search on that topic you will see additional studies that show bare wood out performs oiled wood for bacterial colonization. The hypothesis is that the fibers of the wood itself destroy the cell walls of the bacteria. It makes no big difference what type of wood.
Sharp poky bits are hard on bacterial cell walls.
Surface texture has a big influence on cell propagation.
That is fair. I just linked to the full text of the specific research you linked to.Their research showed what you are saying. Bare wood was better but the oil was still good and it will help keep the cutting board looking good for longer. To me that is the best of both worlds.
That website is the bomb. What a great resource.
