As Martha Stewart would say, color coded cutting boards are “a good thing.”
If you’ve ever had a bout of salmonella, you’ll know enough to do whatever you can to avoid it again. Years ago, before I learned to cook very much, I made a simple dinner of chicken and salad. The rest of the night and next two days were not so simple. The emergency room physician suspected that I had somehow transferred the harmful bacteria from the raw chicken to the salad. At least I was single then and cooking for one.
Now that I cook for Jay and entertain our friends, I’ve become a lot more careful about this stuff. One of the greatest kitchen gadgets I’ve found to ease my paranoia is a color coded cutting board set. Cutting boards are a prime culprit in many cases of cross-contamination so using separate, color-coded cutting boards for different ingredients is a great way of preventing cross-contamination. The colors help you keep track of which cutting boards are for reserved for certain types of foods, so that you’re less likely to cut lettuce on the same board you just used for prepping raw poultry.
I know. It’s sounds like a pain. Really, you don’t need to buy dozens of color coded cutting boards in every Crayola color in existence. Some great minds already came up with a pretty simple system:
- Green – Fruits & Vegetables
- Blue – Seafood
- White – Cooked Food
- Red – Raw Meat
Not all sets contain all those colors, and that’s okay. Even having one separate, distinctively colored cutting board that’s reserved just for raw meat is a great idea and will go a long way toward minimizing your chances of a food-related illness. But the colors are kinda pretty and do remind me to watch that I don’t get sloppy with those little bacteria buggers when I’m busy cooking.
If you like the idea of getting a full set, Joseph Joseph makes a decent set of four plastic cutting boards. The set is the standard 13 x 9.5 size and also includes a storage case that has a contemporary design that reminds me of index files. If you have a modern looking kitchen, these wouldn’t look bad on the counter.
However, if you’re looking for larger cutting boards and want something that’s a higher quality, look at “The Gripper” by Archetic. These are restaurant quality, high-density plastic cutting boards (polypropylene, actually) and a full 11 x 14. The professional version is huge – 12 X 19. Color selection is fun – orange, bright green, red and white. Especially cool is that underneath the cutting board are hundreds of raised rubber grippers that help the board stay put as you safely slice, dice, mince and chop. Great on slippery granite counter tops.
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