Twin Eagles TEPS-30FSD (as shown) User Manual
Page 4
Within three minutes, 99.9 percent of the bacteria were unrecoverable and presumed dead.
By the next morning, the researchers couldn't recover any live bacteria from the wood.
Next, the scientists upped the germ count, inoculating the boards with a million or more
bacteria apiece. Then they had enough survivors to work with, but not for long. Within two
hours, again 99.9 percent of the bacteria had vanished.
Cliver and Ak tried the same procedures with plastic cutting boards. All the bacteria
survived. The organisms even lived through hot water and soap washings in good health
and high enough numbers to contaminate clean meat later placed on the plastic.
The scientist tried inoculating wood and plastic boards with bacteria on three successive
days, and not cleaning the boards between inoculations. They maintained the boards under
identical conditions of warmth and high humidity, comparable to a busy restaurant kitchen.
At the end of the three days, once more 99.9 percent of the bacteria had vanished from the
wood boards. The plastic boards were thriving germ farms.
The researchers have no idea what makes wood inhospitable to bacterial growth and
survival. They aren't even sure that the bacteria are dying. According to the Science News
article reporting their work, Cliver admitted "we've not recovered the little critters' dead
bodies." But if the germs are hiding somewhere in the wood, nothing seems to lure them
back out again.
The mysterious natural antibiotic effect of wood on food contaminating bacteria seems to
work with old wood as well as new, and with every species of wood tested so far. The only
thing they've found that does enhance bacteria growth is treating the wood with mineral oil.
By sealing the wood, oiling makes it more like plastic. As far as bacteria are concerned,
that's a good thing.
So great-aunt's board is set for use again, old, unoiled, and even barely washed. As Cliver
explained, for cleaning wood, "a good wipe will do fine---and if you forget to wipe the board,
you probably won't be too bad off.
3