If there’s one kitchen maintenance tip that we could give out, it would be to clean your cutting board. Seriously, clean your cutting board. It seems like something that shouldn’t need to be reiterated, but surprisingly it does. Cutting boards take some serious abuse each day. They’re used for prepping vegetables and fruits; they can hold raw meat while it’s being seasoned, and they always end up with various sauces, juices, and other miscellaneous food products scattered on them. This, obviously, can lead to some pretty serious food safety issues if they aren’t cleaned properly as germs can really take hold in that kind of environment.
If you’re like most people, you probably throw your cutting boards in the dishwasher, and that provides a basic cleaning. But, it’s also important to spend some quality time cleaning and maintaining your cutting boards so that they last a long time and are clean of any buildup of germs and bacteria.
Here’s How to Clean a Cutting Board
First, it’s important to make sure that you have separate cutting boards for separate functions. This means that meat is cut and prepped on one cutting board, and fruits, vegetables, and breads is done on another. Meat doesn’t get used on the veggie board and vice versa.
Now that we’ve got that settled, let’s talk about frequency. Washing your cutting board once a day won’t cut it. Cutting boards need to be cleaned after every use. Now, if you need to cut an onion, a tomato, and some garlic, feel free to use the same cutting board. But, don’t use it for lunch and then let it sit out until dinner without cleaning it again.
How to Clean a Cutting Board After Raw Meat
After preparing raw meat on a cutting board, washing it in a dishwasher isn’t enough to ensure that there is no remaining bacteria on the board. You need to put in a little more time and effort into cleaning it. Start by washing the cutting board with hot water and soap. Next, mix 1 teaspoon of bleach with 8 cups of water. Use this mixture to wash your cutting board after the hot water and soap to kill off bacteria and germs. Once you wash your board with the clorox mixture, rinse it off again under hot water. Dry the cutting board completely before storing, since moisture also breeds bacteria.
How to Clean a Cutting Board After Prepping Fruits and Veggies
Cleaning a cutting board that isn’t being used for raw meat and seafood is a bit easier and if your cutting board is plastic or glass, throw it in the dishwasher or just wash it by hand with hot soapy water, and you’re done. A dishwasher, however, won’t always get rid of smells and stains that can become ingrained in your cutting board, so a few tips to remove those can also be helpful.
To get rid of stains, rub lemon juice over the cutting board or slice a lemon in half and rub the flat side across the cutting board. Finish up with a quick rinse in hot water and soap, and you should have most of the smell gone.
A mixture of salt and lemon juice will also help scrub away stains and keep your cutting boards looking like new. In fact, it actually lightens your cutting board, making it look brighter, which is great for cutting boards that are made of colored plastic.
Do you have any tips for how to clean a cutting board? Share them with us in the comments!
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