For cutting boards, is wood or plastic healthier? We asked experts.

Cutting boards can get a lot of action in the kitchen, brushing up against many of the foods we eat both raw and cooked — so you may wonder whether your go-to boards are optimal for food safety and long-term health.

Different materials, such as wood and plastic, can affect how a surface harbors microbes such as bacteria from raw ingredients. There’s also the question of what comes off the board (and into your meal) as you chop — such as microplastics — and whether ingesting it is harming you.

Wood and plastic cutting boards also differ in how they need to be cleaned and their longevity, which can affect how practical they are and, ultimately, which one is healthiest in your house. We asked experts to break down the key considerations.

Which is safer and cleaner: Wood or plastic?

Because wood is a porous material, it was once thought that bacteria from food could seep down into a wooden board and hang around long enough to contaminate the next items you chopped on it. But recent research suggests that these infectious organisms are more likely to become trapped deep inside the wood’s crevices and die off as moisture evaporates from the permeable surface.

Still, wood may pose more of a food-safety risk than plastic simply because it is tougher to clean and sanitize the board’s surface, said Wade Syers, a food safety specialist at Michigan State University Extension.

You can’t just stick it in the dishwasher, as the high heat can cause wood to warp or crack. Instead, you have to hand-wash it by scrubbing both sides with hot, soapy water.

To be sure you kill all pathogens on the surface of the board (generally most important if you’ve used the board to cut raw meat), you also need a sanitizing step, Syers said. His recommendation: Mix bleach with water to make a solution with a concentration of 50 to 100 parts per million — this chart can help you figure out the right ratio depending on what type of bleach you have.

Then, put it in a spray bottle and spritz both sides of the board thoroughly. This solution will knock out most microbes but is weak enough to leave on the board without rinsing, which ensures it has plenty of time to kill hardy pathogens, Syers said.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, you can make a solution with one tablespoon of household bleach and one gallon of water, pour it over the surface of the board, let it stand for a few minutes and then rinse the board to remove any remaining bleach.

In any case, after cleaning a wood board, pat it dry, then stand it upright to air-dry before storing it. Without residual moisture, any lingering microbes won’t be able to survive long.

Over time, wood also requires some maintenance, such as treating it with food-grade mineral oil and sanding down fuzzy sections that crop up as wood fibers begin to lift from its surface.

By contrast, a plastic board can be effectively cleaned by running it in a dishwasher cycle, Syers said. The high heat and detergent take care of sanitizing it.

That said, plastic boards are more susceptible than wood to developing big grooves from cutting, and microorganisms can thrive in those spaces, Syers said. (Because plastic is nonporous, liquid pools on its surface and evaporates more slowly than with wood, where it soaks in and spreads out over a larger area.) This means you’ll need to replace these boards more often to keep your kitchen safe.

What about the risks of microplastics from plastic cutting boards?

Slicing and dicing can send tiny shards of board material into every piece of food — which is concerning when it comes to plastic. Microplastics can already be found in our kitchens via sources like food packaging, utensils and ultra-processed foods. Swallowing microplastics is one way they can amass in body tissues, and though their health impact is still a big area of study, “there’s mounting evidence that it’s certainly not good,” said Christy Tyler, a professor of environmental science at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

A few studies have shown that plastic cutting boards deposit microplastics into food, with 2023 research pointing to the boards as “a substantial source of microplastics in human food” with regular use.

The possible health effects of that exposure, however, are tricky to parse. For starters, the “size of the plastic matters,” Tyler said. The pieces have to be very small to slip through membranes and enter human tissue, whereas bigger chunks may pass through the body whole. Measuring the tiniest microplastics is notoriously challenging, Tyler said.

There’s also the potential problem of plastic-associated chemicals, such as dyes and plasticizers, which plastic cutting boards also contain. These chemicals could leach into your gut after you ingest them, Tyler said. A 2025 study in mice suggested that plastic from cutting boards may disrupt the microbiome — the community of microbes in the gastrointestinal tract — but there isn’t a comparable study in people. And again, the lack of a standard method for measuring plastics in the body makes it hard to say if people would experience the same risks with typical levels of exposure, and what the health effects could be.

Ultimately, the health risks of microplastics from cutting boards aren’t clear and may depend on factors that vary from person to person, Tyler said, such as how often you use a plastic board, your diet and the age of the board. A more shredded-up board could release more microplastics into food cut on it, she noted.

How to choose the best cutting board for your needs

Both plastic and wood boards can be hygienic options, so long as you take care to clean them adequately and replace them when they’re visibly worn out, said Syers.

Because wood and plastic boards each have pros and cons, the data isn’t compelling enough to suggest tossing ones you already have, Tyler said, assuming they’re in good condition.

Plastic and wood boards tend to be the most widely available, and plastic is generally cheapest. Some cutting boards are made from other materials, but each comes with its own pluses and minuses, Syers said. Stone, metal and glass cutting boards won’t increase your microplastic exposure or develop grooves where bacteria can hide, and some can go in the dishwasher — but they can also dull knife edges and may be slippery during food prep.

Glass and stone boards can also be heavy and may shatter if dropped. Tyler recently bought a lightweight, dishwasher-safe metal board and uses her plastic cutting boards mainly for activities like kneading bread, for which she’s not using a knife.

If possible, Syers suggests having multiple boards and designating certain ones for raw meats and others for fruits and vegetables to reduce the chance of cross-contamination. This usually occurs when pathogens from meat make their way into produce that is eaten raw or isn’t cooked hot enough to kill those bacteria, he explained.

Many food-safety experts and cooks use plastic for cutting raw meats — because it can easily be rid of germs in the dishwasher — and wood for everything else, to balance the pros and cons of each.