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Looking for a BPA free cutting board that is made of plastic can be frustrating, and at the same time you might not be so safe with plastic even if it’s BPA Free. There can be other potentially harmful chemicals in plastics that we just don’t know of yet, and that is why getting a bamboo cutting board is a step towards the right direction when it comes to removing toxins from your home.
Bamboo is an excellent material to be used in cutting boards – actually it’s way better than wood in many ways. Bamboo isn’t a tree, but it is a grass, and thanks to its superb growth speed it is very ecological and a renewable source of material. When it’s made in to a cutting board, it will be more durable, more resistant to bending, and it won’t chip as easily as a wooden chopping board.
Like we discussed in the earlier post about BPA free plastic cutting boards, this is an area that you want to get made of a safe material. Basically you are always using the cutting board in a way that will cause small particles of the material to come off in to your food. You will be grinding that knife against the board when you cut your vegetables, and you are going to scrape the veggies off the board when you plate them, or put them in the salad bowl.
Why Bamboo?
We always like to say that we are looking for safe products to be used in your home and when you are traveling – realize that the toxin levels of the world are constantly going up, and we have to reduce the amount of chemicals that we get in your bodies at home so that our system can cope up with the airborne pollution, and toxins that you can’t have an effect on.
Besides just safe products, we like to look for ecological products as we have noticed that natural materials are not only safe, but they are very durable as well. And on the top of that they are easy to recycle once they are through their lifespan, and the same thing goes for bamboo.
Bamboo is such a versatile material that it isn’t only used in cutting boards, but basically anything that you can come up with. People are building houses, using it as their flooring, their kitchen countertop, their plates, and it is used in furniture as well. This grass is exceptional for all these purposes because it is very strong, hardy and it is readily available in warmer climates.
Some of the fastest growing species of bamboo can grow up to 40 inches in 24 hours depending on the climate and the type of soil they are planted in. No tree can do this, and that makes it such an ideal material for many purposes – this is the reason why many native cultures still use bamboo in so many applications.
The shoots of bamboo can be eaten apart from the giant bamboo shoots that can be toxic to you!
Why is a bamboo cutting board better than a wooden one?
There are some minor problems with wooden cutting boards that make them less easy to use as plastic. For example, you have to be oiling them on a regular basis if you want to keep them in mint condition for as long as possible – this isn’t really a hard thing to do because all you have to do is after washing apply a small coat of an oil on the surface and you are good to go. The second thing is that you have to wash the cutting board quickly after use, and you can’t use a dishwasher. This sounds like a big deal for a lot of people, but the fact is that it’s not that big of a deal – just a small squirt of a non toxic washing solution and a little bit of water will do the trick.
It actually beats the plastic ones in use. Wooden, and bamboo cutting boards are more user friendly when it comes to chopping up what you are ever trying to chop. Since they are usually thicker and absorb a little bit of water, they will not be so slippery on the surface. Many people have reported to add rubber pads on plastic boards to make sure that they stay in place when cutting – if the board is turning and twisting when you are using it, it can be quite dangerous. If there is even the smallest amount of water trapped between the chopping board and the surface, it is going to be very slippery!
Well with bamboo this is not such a problem as the material is thicker and somewhat poreus – meaning that it will absorb that small drop of water and actually use the moisture to grab on to the surface. You can get those chopping blocks made of bamboo, that are meant for very rough use, and they are usually up to a few inches thick and very heavy – they will be very stable to use. Another interesting feature is that the knife will slide better on wood and bamboo, than it will on plastic. Your knives will stay sharper and you will not risk cutting your fingers so easily – one common reason for someone to hurt themselves while chopping vegetables or something that is hard, is that when they start pushing the knife down, it gets stuck on the plastic surface of the cutting board. Bamboo chopping boards don’t have this problem, and they are in our opinion much safer than other types of boards.
With wooden boards there is on problem that bamboo cutting boards don’t really have. If they get really we on one side, and not so on the other side, they can bend so much that they will break. Bamboo can be bent to a very large degree before there is any risk of breaking – it’s very hardy even when it is dry. The are very durable.
What are customers saying?
Well what can you say! The price is right on the money, and it is the cheapest bamboo cutting board set that you will find! At the same time they are very durable and come in a variety of sizes. The smallest one isn’t as useful as you would think as it can be a little bit too small even, but it is perfect if you are just using it to do a small amount of chopping – for larger tasks, always use the larger boards.
Thanks to the fact that these boards are thinner than expected, they are very easy to handle, and don’t take up space in the cupboard. These bamboo cutting boards won’t warp unlike very expensive woods like cherry that are often used in the same application. It is even harder than maple or oak, and we will find them very useful for a long time.
We use these boards for bread, and thanks to the very slim design, they are easily stored in a drawer in our kitchen. They are very easy to just pick up, slice the bread and you don’t have to wash it every time – though giving a quick rinse won’t harm anyone. We haven’t washed them in the dishwasher, so we can’t really say how they would hold up.
