Flexible Cutting Boards: Minimalist Dream or Disposable Nightmare
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 02.26.06
A friend recently sent us a flexible cutting board, a new concept which we greeted very positively. I have heard them praised: how easy it is to bend it into a funnel after chopping to add the veggies to the soup; how light and easy to handle, easy to clean up; so thin they store right on the counter-top or tuck away anywhere. And they can be printed with pretty pictures or color-coded for different food categories. 'This is treehugger!' I thought. Now I am having second thoughts.
I admit to being a fan of wooden cutting boards and a bit neutral on the scary-bacteria issue, never having gotten sick with only a reasonable amount of soap (normal, not the anti-bacterial stuff) and warm water treatment. Wood is reported to discourage bacterial growth. Wood heals: the pores close up so bacteria cannot be harbored in a good hardwood (or bamboo if you can afford it) cutting board. A wood cutting board can be rescued with a little TLC even after a lot of use. And it is better for your knives...any cutting surface which is not getting nicks and grooves is harder than your knife blade so it is the blade which is suffering.
But that is all personal. And all the arguments go the other way: wood cannot be washed in such hot water so plastics are less susceptible to bacterial growth; light, dishwasher safe plastic cutting boards are a great improvement in kitchen ease for a lot of people. But when the plastic gets too ugly, and it doesn't take long in a high use zone, there is a lot of good plastic gone to waste. Nicks less than 10% deep cause the other 90% of the material to reach the end of its life. The almost paper-thin flexible cutting board seems like the perfect design to resolve this drawback. Yes, I thought to myself, this has a place in the green kitchen!
But, of course, a little research always goes into fleshing out an article so Treehugger readers get the real scoop, all the news that's fit to print, as Mr. Ochs would say. And the very first google hit on "cutting board lite flexible " advertises the "chop chop disposable cutting board". Oh no, is this just another trick to replace a $15 dollar product with a lifespan measured in years with a 12-pack for $2.99 with a lifespan of a few minutes????
My cutting mat is holding up well after three months. The cheerful design hides any damage well, and it is certainly living up to the praise my friends have heaped upon it. I will try to remain optimistic. Like many products, if not abused, the flexible cutting board offers benefits in clever use of minimal materials. A small note of caution: like many trendy products, there appears to be a real mixture of both high quality and wanna-be cutting boards available. If you decide that this is the answer for you next time your thick plastic board doesn't meet the upcoming mom-inspection criteria, beware of boards which do not emphasize compliance to food-contact standards, because the flood of imports filling this market demand may not be fully up to speed on the regulations in the country of sale. And let us know your thoughts: minimalist dream or disposable nightmare?
photo via Sur la Table
Take heart - these have been available in the UK for ages, and my set has been going strong for 3 years and counting. It only takes a minimal amount of care so you don't score them too badly when cutting! (and thus shorten their life).
I agree with snowfox, my set is going on 4 years and still fine. My father in law is a food safety scientist and we take bacterial cross-contamination seriously around our house, although I use tea tree oil to disinfect where he uses bleach. It is important to keep meat juices away from produce, and these help do the trick. We have a tankless water heater and it takes awhile to get the water hot..so rather than waste water and energy to wash one cutting board repeatedly over the course of a day we have 7 cutting boards-3 wood, and 4 of these guys (we cook from scratch at least 2x day)and they all get washed once they are all dirty.
I've been using a similar product (0.015-inch thick HDPE) for about 5 years and have only lost one to cut-through/cracking. And even if they only lasted 6 months, that's the equivalent (in terms of non-renewable resources) of tossing a 0.5-in thick board every 16 years.
I'm a big fan of "zero-margin" products that cAn last years, but do not have the material and mfg overhead that ensure that they Do last years.
Watch out for heat!
Maybe it's just mine but I accidentally put some hot tofu on it and now it's warped! :(
I tried to hang on to my plastic cutting board for as long as possible, but it just started looking, well, ...not too good. I just picked up small and medium bambu boards at gomi. I also love bambu's candle that I bought!
http://fiftyrx3.blogspot.com/2006/02/store-of-month-gomi-nyc.html
erm, how says you can put wooden chopping boards in hot water? I have been doing it for years, I put it through the wishwasher, I also bleach it with chlorine bleach every couple of months.
You can also sand it back to remove knife marks once they become bad enough. never been oiled, wiped down with just water and a cloth between dishwashing washes (about every second week).
never been sick, never looked unsitely always ready to use.
I don't have any of these, but use a very large marble cutting board. Most of the time I cook in a way where I cut veg first and meat later, but even if that's not the case it's large enough to use half for veg and half for meat. I've had it for about seven years now, and it's still in great shape. I cook often.
If your board has warped due to hot tofu (or any other foodstuff) You can straighten them by putting in boiling water then under something flat and heavy like a wooden chopping board ;) (or failing that a big book)
I must have gotten one of the poor-quality versions of the thin cutting board.
Within a month, the hot water had done it's work and it was impossibly warped, creating a springy, trampoline-like dome/bowl for cutting that would throw chopped dry ingredients all over the countertop when the knife was lifted away. Foods with more moisture would float in their own juices off the higher middle towards the edges, on to the counter - or lie - unchoppable - in the bottom of the depression. Most frustrating.
Finally, a particulary vicious scoring inflicted by a bread knife caused the "board" to split. I replaced it with a 1/2"-thick polypropylene board (Those translucently-white boards you can find anywhere) which has behaved as a proper cutting board should, can be washed in scalding water without warping, and is eminently recyclable.
I prefer wood but as I'm presently living in someone else's home, they use one of these thin plastic cutting boards. They told me they've had it for about 10 years! It looks funky but I have to say it's useful and does the job. Also I've been told by Jewish folks that they particularly like these as if they keep Kosher they need four separate cutting boards and these are thinner and more practical than trying to keep four big wood cutting boards handy for daily use.
I use a newer product called Cut & Toss Disposable Cutting Boards that are made from like a paper type poly material and they are a dream! I use them like paper towels, they are extremely durable, flexible, the sides fold up and best of all inexpensive. Go to www.cutandtoss.com to see what I mean...I think that everyone should know about these.
I have been looking for a disposable cutting board for camping and BBQ competitions. Places where I need a cutting board and lack the facilities to wash it. First let me say I love wood cutting boards at home especially the new bamboo variety. I read where wood is actually more sanitary than plastic as the surface cuts stay open and as such are easier to clean with hot soapy water. As opposed to plastic boards that tend to "self heal" and lock the bacteria inside the surface cut. I found a new product that is made to be disposable called Cut and Toss. They advertise that they are biodegradible paper. Has anyone seen these things, and comments?
I wonder if the perceived quality of the boards depends on the quality of your knives. We had the exact boards pictures for a little over a year and thought they were great. Recently, though, we bought a few new knives (maybe a month ago) and now the cutting boards are destroyed - cut-through everywhere whether using our big knife and firm cutting (like for a watermelon) or a small chopper with little pressure (like cutting mushrooms). Maybe it's the "age" of the boards or maybe this just says something about how sharp our older knives were, but all three boards are now on their way to the landfill. Gonna' look into a bamboo one to replace them...
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