Everyone who uses a chopping board warned of dangerous mistake
When you’re in the kitchen cooking a delicious meal, the prep is everything – so you need the right equipment to make the process easier.
Decent pots and pans, sharp knives and other utensils are essential for being able to cook well.
And of course, you also need a good chopping board to slice up all of your ingredients before they go into whatever you are cooking.
However, there’s one common misconception about chopping boards and the ideal material that they should be made out of.
There’s one specific type that can be a real breeding ground for bacteria, and if you don’t have a dishwasher, you might want to switch to a different kind.
A clip from the hit BBC TV show QI has been circulating on TikTok recently, in which the panellists discuss chopping boards and what they should be made out of for maximum safety.
Host Sandi Toksvig poses the question: “To prevent bacteria what should your chopping board be made of?”
And the correct answer isn’t plastic, but wood.
Guest panellist, comedian Sara Pascoe, then continued: “For ages they thought the plastic ones were better. People thought that wood has these little grooves, and bacteria would go in there and live and multiply.
“But then they actually found that plastic was much worse.”
Proving why this was correct, Sandi added: “99.9% of the bacteria that is added to a wooden chopping board has disappeared within three minutes of application.
“And on plastic ones it’s all still there,” she said, showing a microscopic image of some nasty looking bacteria on the big screens.
She explained that the ‘only good thing’ about plastic chopping boards is that you can clean them in the dishwasher, whereas you can’t do this with wooden ones.
The high temperatures inside this appliance should kill off any nasty germs that are lurking on the surface after chopping up food.
Sandi concluded: “The most important thing, of course, is to wash them and then replace them when they get a bit knackered.”
