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Wood, Bamboo, Plastic or Glass? The Best Chopping Board Material (and the One to Bin)
Wood, bamboo, plastic or glass? Wood and bamboo are kindest to your knives, plastic needs the dishwasher, and glass should never meet a blade. Here's why.
Somewhere in your kitchen there's a chopping board you hate.
It's either so slippy the onion escapes, or so scratched it looks like a cat lives on it, or it's glass and sounds like a fork on a blackboard.
So let's settle it. Wood, bamboo, plastic or glass. Which one actually earns its place on the worktop?
Spoiler: one of them is going in the bin.
What makes a good chopping board?
Before the fight, the rules. A good board does four things:
- Looks after your knife. Soft enough to let the edge sink in a touch, so it stays sharp.
- Stays put. No skating about mid-chop.
- Cleans up properly. No hiding places for germs.
- Lasts. Years, not weeks.
Score each material against that and the best chopping board material picks itself. Mostly.
Wood: the old faithful
A proper wood chopping board is the one chefs reach for. It's kind to knives, heavy enough to stay still, and it looks lovely doing it.
And here's the bit that surprises people. Researchers at UC Davis found that bacteria didn't hang about on the surface of wood for long, while used plastic was harder to get clean. Wood isn't magic, but it's no germ trap either.
So what's the best wood for chopping board duty? Tight-grained hardwoods - maple, beech, walnut, cherry, olive. Avoid soft, open-grained woods that soak up juices like a sponge.
The catch? No dishwasher. Ever. It needs a quick scrub by hand and the odd bit of TLC. We've written up a quick scrub and an occasional oiling if you want the full routine.
Bamboo: the clever cousin
Technically bamboo is a grass, not a wood. Don't tell it. It's sensitive.
It's hard, light and grows like mad, so it's a much greener choice than slow-growing hardwoods. It's also less porous than a lot of woods, so it doesn't drink up juices.
It's a little harder on your knife edge than maple, but nothing a steel or sharpener can't sort. And it cleans the same way as wood - warm soapy water, dry it standing up.
It's why we make our Large Bamboo Chopping Board. 45 x 30cm and 2cm thick, so there's room for a whole roast chicken and its entourage.
Plastic: cheap, cheerful, and a bit of a liar
A plastic chopping board has one big win: it goes in the dishwasher. A hot cycle cleans it properly, scratches and all.
The trouble starts when you wash it by hand. Every knife cut leaves a little groove, and those grooves are very hard to scrub clean, especially after raw chicken.
So if you go plastic, dishwasher it every time, and bin it when it's covered in deep scratches. It looks clean. It isn't.
It's also light, which sounds handy until it slides off the worktop with your carrots on it. A damp tea towel underneath fixes that.
Glass: the one to bin
Here we go.
A glass chopping board looks smart. It wipes clean. It's in every gift shop going.
And it is the worst thing you can put a knife on. Glass is harder than your blade, so every chop rolls the edge over. A few weeks of that and your best knife couldn't cut warm butter.
It's slippy too, so food slides and knives skid. Which is how fingers end up in A&E.
Our advice: keep the glass one as a trivet for hot pans or a cheese board for show. Never chop on it.
So, which one wins?
For everyday chopping: wood or bamboo. Gentle on knives, steady, long-lasting.
For raw meat: a separate board you can scrub hard or run through the dishwasher. A plastic one does that job well, or a second wooden board kept just for meat.
Whatever you pick: keep raw meat and ready-to-eat food apart. Food Standards Scotland's advice on cross contamination is not to use the same board for both unless you wash it thoroughly in between.
For glass: the cupboard. Or the charity shop. Someone else's knives, someone else's problem.
Same goes for the rest of the kitchen, by the way. If your board's spotless but your sink isn't, have a look at the germiest spots in a family kitchen.
Look after it and it'll look after you
- Wash it straight after use in hot soapy water. Don't leave it soaking - wood and bamboo hate a bath.
- Dry it standing up so air gets to both sides and it doesn't warp.
- Oil wood and bamboo when they start looking pale and thirsty.
- Retire it when it's deeply scored, cracked or smells a bit funny even after washing.
That's it. Pick a good board, treat it nicely, and never chop on glass again.
Now go and cook something.
