Make Plastic Cutting Board White Again

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For all the attention cooks give to their knives, it'southward a good thought to spend just a trivial time thinking about what kind of surface those knives are beingness used on. Cutting board options abound, including many different types of wood, composite materials, plastics, and (*shudder*) glass. For this review, we've examined plastic cutting boards to find our favorites—the most durable and gentlest on your knives. We're currently working on a wood cut board review, then stay tuned for that in the coming months. Read on for our peak picks, testing methodology, results, and a (brief) discussion of woods versus plastic cutting boards.

Our Favorites, at a Glance

The All-time Plastic Cutting Board: OXO Good Grips Cutting Lath

Equally basic plastic cutting boards get, OXO's are hard to beat out. They're incredibly durable, yet still kind to a knife bract, leaving information technology precipitous even after heavy use. Thin plenty to store easily but thick and sturdy enough not to bend and warp, OXO's boards kept their shape after multiple high-heat spins through a dishwasher. They also come up in a range of nice sizes, with the minor and medium boards sold every bit a pair (linked below), while OXO'south large "Cutting and Carving" board is offered separately.

The Best Loftier-Cease Plastic Cutting Board: Yoshihiro Hi-Soft Cutting Board

Of all the plastic cutting boards tested for this review, Yoshihiro's Hullo-Soft cut boards felt closest to forest; cutting on them is pure pleasance. They're also very gentle on knives, but you need to be more careful working with these boards: aggressive and sloppy pocketknife work will do damage to the softer thermoplastic cloth. They're too non dishwasher condom, which ways hand-washing is your only option.

Which Cutting Board Textile is Best: Wood or Plastic?

For a while, near folks but assumed plastic cutting boards were more germ-free than woods. After all, they're nonporous and, in theory, easier to sanitize. The reality is more complicated. Plastic is less porous than wood and and then, when new, it's easier to sanitize. But with time, as scratches develop—especially deep ones where leaner can hide and fester—plastic becomes increasingly difficult to keep clean. Somewhen, a plastic board needs to be thrown out.

Woods, meanwhile, is more porous, just studies accept shown that fine-grained wood like maple (which are some of the better options for cutting boards) pull bacteria down into the board via capillary action, where the bacteria are trapped and somewhen killed. Hard forest can too take more of a beating before surface scratches become a trouble. Plus, it can be sanded to reset the surface to good-as-new condition, something you can't do with plastic.

Plastic boards are all the same useful to have in the kitchen, though. I tend to catch them for anything that's going to exist messy—whether it's raw meat or fish that I want to cut into smaller pieces or foods like beets that stain everything they bear on—or when I but need a pocket-sized board for something quick, like halving a lemon. Plastic boards wash up quickly and don't crave the maintenance that forest does to stay in skillful shape, like frequent oiling.

Glass and marble, in case y'all don't know, are unacceptable cutting board materials. They ruin knives practically on contact, and have a deeply unpleasant feel; a knife on glass is the kitchen equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard.

The Criteria: What We Look for in a Nifty Plastic Cutting Lath

Plastic cut boards should be reasonably durable—specially since deep gouges and scratches render them dangerous from a food-condom standpoint. But they shouldn't be so indestructible that a sharp pocketknife grinds to a prematurely dull border, as it does on glass. The ideal plastic board offers a balance between hardiness and gentleness.

Plastic cutting boards should not be then smoothen that slippery foods glide across them as if on water ice. That makes cutting dangerous. Ideally, the board has plenty texture on its surface that slithery foods stay still as you cut them, but non and so much that the board feels rough to the bear on.

Board size options are also of import. Small boards tin can be handy for quick and piece of cake tasks—cutting upwardly a lemon or lime for wedges, or chop-chop slicing a single onion, for example. But yous also want a larger board so there'southward enough infinite to arrange larger quantities of food—you don't desire things piling up and spilling off the edges. Some of the plastic cutting board options out in that location only offering small and medium boards, leaving you in the lurch for the kind cut board y'all'd want for, say, butchering a craven. Speaking of size, prophylactic grips on the edges and cutouts for handles are welcome—as long as they don't reduce the useful work area besides much.

Beingness able to toss a plastic cutting board into the dishwasher is certainly a plus, so it's a characteristic we factored in when evaluating the cut boards in this examination. But we didn't consider information technology to be a requirement. Some of the boards that imitate wood best in terms of how they feel under the knife are fabricated from plastics that would warp in a hot dishwasher. A wood-like feel is a pretty nice matter, so we're willing to accept a no-dishwasher policy if the lath actually delivers on a tactile level.

As for stain-resistance, it wasn't anywhere near the top of our list. Our priorities are performance, not aesthetics, so we fabricated sure the boards in this review met (and, hopefully, surpassed) the higher up criteria before even considering staining. As it turned out, we'd eliminated all the boards except for the winners before staining could even be tested. That said, we've been using the winning OXO plastic boards for years, both at domicile and in the Serious Eats examination kitchen, and while they do lose their brilliant white gleam later on a while, we oasis't institute staining to be an issue.

The Testing

We ran the plastic cutting boards in this review through a series of tests to get a sense of how they felt under the knife, how slippery they were, how durable they were, and how gentle they were on a pocketknife's blade. We as well made sure all of the boards that claimed to be dishwasher condom really were.

A quick scan of cutting boards on websites similar Amazon quickly reveals just how many products are out in that location. We couldn't possibly exam them all. For this review, we express the testing group to the plastic boards that competing review sites looked at, likewise as the top sellers with good reviews on sites like Amazon. In improver, nosotros included a couple lesser-known Japanese boards that nosotros knew of through professional experience.

We too opted non to include some popular options, based on direct prior experience. Those include flexible cut board mats, which we've establish to exist far too hard to continue from sliding around on the countertop, and too industrial high-density polyethylene boards, which we find to exist likewise hard and, often, too roughly textured.

Slicing Onions

A basic task like slicing an onion is a great way to get a sense of how a work surface feels under the knife. Some plastic cutting boards are unpleasantly hard, making loud clacking sounds if the pocketknife fifty-fifty gently taps them, and offering no give or shock absorption. Not that a cut board should be on the receiving finish of calumniating knife strokes, merely a little give is squeamish, more closely emulating the pleasant tactile response of a natural material similar wood.

Subsequently this quick exam, we had a much better sense of which boards we liked cut on, and which we didn't; not enough to eliminate any of the contenders, simply certainly enough to put some of them on the ropes.

Slicing Squid

Raw meats and fish can be slippery, and an overly polish cutting board surface can make matters much worse. Trying to piece a slippery food on a slick surface isn't just frustrating—it'south legitimately dangerous. If foods slide around excessively, y'all're that much more likely to slip and cut yourself by accident.

To exam this, we sliced slithery squid into rings on each board. Subsequently the onion slicing test, this one was enough to bump a couple cut boards that were both too difficult and too slick from the running.

Dishwasher Test

Nosotros respected those boards that didn't claim to exist dishwasher-safe past not putting them in the dishwasher. Off-white plenty—if they could win on other fronts, they were still in the running. Merely any board that claimed to exist dishwasher-prophylactic needed to live upwards to that.

In the past we've had OXO boards that, despite their dishwasher-safe merits, warped in the dishwasher. Subsequently an commutation with representatives from OXO some months ago, we learned that they'd since updated the board material to address this result. Our testing for this review bore their claim out: Even after repeated cycles through our exam kitchen'southward dishwasher on its highest-heat, longest-duration setting, they kept their flat profile.

So did all the other dishwasher-rubber boards we tested. None were eliminated based on this exam.

Durability and Blade Damage Test

Testing a board's immovability and its outcome on a blade is no easy thing. There's no manner to apply the same knife to test all the boards, since re-sharpening the knife betwixt each use wouldn't guarantee that the pocketknife was returned to its original country each time. It's too not easy to apply a consistent pressure on each knife stroke, which would be the only fair way to run a durability and blade-dulling test.

Our solution was a bit of a hack, just we think it addressed these challenges well enough to make the results meaningful. To bargain with the issue of guaranteeing a consistent and equal starting point for the blade used to test each board we bought a new pocketknife for every lath. This ensured that every exam started with the same factory edge. The pocketknife we used was the winning budget pocketknife from our chef'southward knife review, which is made by Mercer (we now have a lot of these knives).

To maintain consistent pressure, nosotros balanced the same iv-and-a-half-pound skillet on top of each knife, using our hand to simply draw the knife forwards and astern while leaving the skillet to supply the downward pressure. How did we arrive at four-point-five pounds of pressure? We saturday a cutting board on a scale and applied a slicing move with a knife to measure what a "heavy" stroke weighs.

Since stroke length matters too (1 8-inch stroke would have more of a toll on a blade than i four-inch stroke), we used a ruler to makes sure stroke lengths were consequent.

We checked each bract's sharpness every 50 strokes by attempting to slice through parchment paper with information technology. This is hardly an exacting way to measure sharpness, but then again, at that place's not actually an alternative method unless you accept some very, very expensive lab gear.

In this test, some blades were wrecked after just 50 strokes, which isn't a practiced sign for how the board will treat your knives at home. Only a couple were withal slicing cleanly afterward the 200th stroke, leaving us with a pretty clear idea of our winning boards.

While it'south difficult to see in this photo, the OXO lath at left took on the least damage, the Hi-Soft in the middle took on a moderate amount of damage, and Korin'due south black cut board took on fairly heavy harm.

On the durability side, the softer, more woods-like plastic boards took on deep scratches rapidly. It didn't take long to generate plastic dust and shavings from those boards. The OXO, which was one of the only remaining boards made from a harder plastic at this point in the testing, withstood impairment ameliorate, mostly incurring low-cal scratches that didn't run as deep.

We eliminated whatsoever board that prematurely wore down the blade, every bit well every bit the ones that took on the worst damage. That said, we left one softer board in the running—our winning high-end selection—considering it's such an absolute pleasure to cut on, and considering the kind of corruption we were subjecting that lath to was in clear violation of the usage instructions.

Designed for high-terminate Japanese knives and intended for more gentle Japanese-mode knife-work, the Yoshihiro Hi-Soft cut board isn't the kind of piece of work surface yous desire to use for heavy-handed tasks, nor do the manufacturers say it should be used so recklessly. Considering of this, we left information technology in the running, since nosotros're confident that with proper usage and intendance, it will perform as advertised.

How We Chose Our Winners

The winning boards offered a combination of durability, gentleness on knife edges, a range of sizes, a good feel, and more.

The Best Plastic Cutting Board: OXO Proficient Grips Cutting Board

OXO's plastic cutting boards are true workhorses, and nosotros say this having congenital upwardly years of experience using them both at piece of work and home. They're thin and lightweight, making them perfect for moving from storage to a countertop to the sink to a drying rack and back into storage once again with ease. They performed well in all our tests: they had a good experience under the knife, had sufficient slip resistance when cut slithery foods similar squid, they were durable and even so gentle on a knife'south edge—even after 200 iv-and-a-one-half-pound strokes, the blade cut through parchment paper similar butter.

Rubber-like trim on the short edges offers some grip on the countertop, reducing the amount the board slides around, though you lot may nevertheless need to stabilize information technology with a moisture towel for some tasks. Those rubber grips are tapered at the edge, making information technology piece of cake to selection the board up even when it'southward resting flush on the countertop. Just every bit importantly, though, OXO has kept the trim minimal, leaving you with an affluence of usable work area. This wasn't true of some of the other boards we tested, and their excessive prophylactic trim left frustratingly niggling space for actual cutting.

1 side of OXO's boards has a juice groove for catching liquids from meats, while the other is totally apartment, ideal for cut fruits and vegetables. One time again, Oxo managed to implement the juice groove without eating up besides much of the piece of work surface, which nosotros appreciated.

And while nosotros'd had problem some years ago with Oxo's dishwasher-prophylactic claim for its plastic cut boards, we found no bug later multiple trips through our dishwasher at its hottest, pot-scrubbiest setting, confirming what the company'due south reps had told us several months ago: They'd updated the lath material to properly withstand dishwasher temps.

Ane more thing we like almost OXO'due south plastic cutting boards is the available sizes. The small and medium boards (7.25- by 10.five-inches and ten.v- by 14.five-inches, respectively) come as a set and are linked to beneath. They're practiced for smaller tasks and quick cleanup. The larger "Carving and Cutting" board, sold separately, offers enough of space for larger meats and quantities of fruits and vegetables with its generous dimensions of xiv.5- past 21-inches. We think it's worth owning all iii sizes.

The Best High-End Plastic Cut Board: Yoshihiro Hi-Soft Cutting Board

This Japanese cut board is made from a thermoplastic called polyvinyl acetate. Marketed as Hi-Soft when sold as a cutting lath, polyvinyl acetate is, according to Wikipedia, likewise used to make various glues and, manifestly, chewing gum. Cheers to science, it too makes a smashing cut board. If you're looking for an experience that's close to woods, this is the ane to get. (It's worth noting that Yoshihiro isn't the only vendor of Hi-Soft boards; yous tin also buy them from Korin.)

When fashioned into a cutting lath, the material is pretty sweet—soft enough to feel absolutely great under a pocketknife but still decently durable, as long as you don't hack at it recklessly. Nosotros did some harm on our review board, simply we were besides clearly doing things to information technology that the manufacturer never intended.

Designed to work with razor-precipitous Japanese knives and the more gentle pulling move chefs tend to use in Japan, the Hi-Soft board is just for folks who recall they have the knives and knife skills to treat information technology with care. If you're a bit of a brute in the kitchen (and no judgement if yous are—it's your dwelling house, cutting as you please), you probably don't want to sink your money into i of these. And note, they're not inexpensive, especially as they go upwardly in size (but oh, how many sizes at that place are!).

The surface is smooth, but still retains a skilful bargain of slip-resistance. Our squid stayed in place every bit we sliced through information technology, which makes sense when yous consider that this type of cutting board is oftentimes used past sushi chefs who often work with slithery raw fish and seafood.

Note that these boards aren't dishwasher safe. A gentle hand-washing with warm soapy h2o is how you have to go them make clean. That doesn't bother united states; sure, it's squeamish to toss a lath in the dishwasher, but a quick wash in the sink shortly after using the board is inappreciably a chore.

The Competition

Here are notes on the other models we tested for this review:

HOMWE's three-piece cutting lath set up was too hard and as well glace, plus the three sizes are too similar; nosotros found ourselves wanting a truly large board. On meridian of that, the handle cut-outs just wasted what was already limited board surface area.
Like the HOMWE boards, Amazon-favorite Gorilla Grips' three-board gear up was hard, slippery, and available in three overly similar (and overly pocket-sized) sizes. It, too, had handle cutting-outs that ate up space.
The Black Slip Resistant Polyethylene Cutting Board sold by Korin did well on early onion and squid tests, and, while potentially bad-mannered for storage, we liked its elongated shape and the ample cutting expanse it offered. But it shredded to dust when we tested its durability. We could accept given information technology a pass for that—after all, like the winning Hi-Soft board, it'southward non meant to be mistreated—just information technology also dulled our pocketknife blade after 200 strokes, which was a chip besides soon for us.
Like in appearance to the Hi-Soft board, this rubber option from JB Prince is more or less similar Sani-Tuff boards used by some commercial kitchens (pros may recognize the Sani-Tuff proper noun, only abode cooks may not). In any event, it performed well up until the pocketknife-blade test, admittedly trashing our blade's factory border in under 50 strokes.

Make Plastic Cutting Board White Again

Source: https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-plastic-cutting-boards