For plastic, thing is not to clean in boling water as it makes microscopic
cracks.
Unlike wood, it does not have a natural antiseptic,

Hence dont clean your plastic vat with boiling water

To back this up, I clean my vat with boilnig water only as I view cleaning
agent residue as more detrimental than bugs, but I do notice that my vat
becomes harder to clean.
When new, the crap slids off.

Stephen


"JS" <jcs4@frontiernet.net> wrote in message
news:1115494549.1d5365cb76eac6bde5e8581129414322@teranews...[color=blue]
>[color=green]
>>Hi
>>
>>I remember reading somewhere some time ago that in cooking, wooden
>>chopping boards are more hygienic than plastic. Trying to confirm
>>this, I found the following article taken from "The New York Times"
>>regarding tests carried out by the University of Wisconsin's Food
>>Research Institute.
>>
>>Quote:-
>>
>> "The scientists, Dean O.Cliver and Nese O. Ak, stumbled upon the
>>finding while seeking ways to decontaminate wooden boards and make
>>them as "safe" as plastic. Much to their surprise, they found that
>>when boards were purposely contaminated with organisms like
>>Salmonella, Listeria and E.coli that are common causes of food
>>poisoning, 99.9 percent of the bacteria died off within three minutes
>>on the wooden boards, while none died on the plastic ones.
>>
>>When contaminated boards were left unwashed overnight at room
>>temperature, bacterial count, increased on the plastic, but none of
>>the organisms could be recovered from the wooden boards the next
>>morning.
>>
>>The researchers tested boards made from seven different species of
>>trees and four types of plastic and found similar results: wood was
>>safer than plastic, regardless of the materials used. Thus far,
>>however, the researchers have been unable to isolate the agents in
>>wood that make it so inhospitable to bacteria."
>>
>>
>>
>>OK, we are talking wooden chopping boards used in cookery here NOT
>>wooden spoons used for brewing, but presumably the same thing holds
>>good.
>>
>>Regards
>>
>>
>>
>>KGB[/color]
>
> Thanks for this! I remember reading not long ago that wood absorbs
> bacteria but doesn't release it. Apparently the organisms get trapped
> in the wood's cells.[/color]