Food served on wooden boards: health and safety issues
One of the big trends now is food that’s served on wooden boards.
There are different views about whether that creates health and safety issues.
It’s important for cafes and restaurants because a restaurant in Birmingham, England, was recently heavily fined after ignoring advice from health inspectors regarding the cleanliness of their serving boards.
Gary Kennedy, a food and safety auditor who has managed a food consultancy business in Sydney for 15 years, says there are no specific New South Wales laws regarding the use of wood in food service.
But he says it comes under the same scrutiny as it would in any industry.
"What the rules say is that it must be washable and impervious and it must not contaminate the food," Kennedy told the ABC.
"Things like coffee stirrers, toothpicks, bamboo steamers — they all legally have to be showing that nothing comes out of the wood that contaminates.
"Pesticide residues, wood treatments and varnishes, all of that still has to be food-grade and if it does in any way get out and get into the food, it's got to be shown to meet the legal limits in the food standards code."
He said there was nothing new in the trend. He had seen food served on wooden boards when he restaurants in his childhood.
It was important however to avoid cross-contamination.
This meant venue owners needed to use separate boards for preparation, especially when handling raw meat, while using others solely for serving cooked food.
Cleaning and maintaining chopping boards ensured food safety.
"If there's a crack in it, it's no good because you can't clean in a big crack. If it's got splinters, don't eat [the food]," Kennedy told the ABC.
"The board should be roughly the same colour. If you can see bits that look dirty there's a problem with it."
by Leon Gettler, January 18th 2017
