Q: Can you please help settle a disagreement I’ve been having with my daughter? She’s been trying to get me to replace my wooden cutting boards with plastic ones, insisting that the wooden versions hold more bacteria since they can’t be put in the dishwasher. I think the wooden ones must be fine, since I’ve been using them for years and no one has gotten sick. Which one of us is correct?

Dr. Wright: Research shows that wooden cutting boards actually do not sustain the growth of bacteria – but the plastic versions do. In part, this research was stimulated by various health departments mandating the use of plastic cutting boards in commercial establishments. These mandates were based on the same assumption your daughter has made: that wood – with all its cracks, crevices, and knife cuts – would harbour microorganisms, and that seamless hard plastic – with only superficial grooving from knives – can be cleaned more easily and effectively.

But researchers found that microorganisms simply didn't survive on wooden cutting boards that were cleaned after use. And plastic cutting boards, even after similar cleaning, did, in fact, harbour bacteria with regularity.