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[02ebz06]

My mind was wandering this morning as I was doing some kitchen cleanup, and got to thinking about cutting boards.
Say you wash a cutting board after cutting up a chicken and didn't do the greatest job of cleaning it

How long is the bacteria on that board dangerous?
Does it have a short or long lifespan ?

I could have Googled, but this is more fun. 

[hughver]

I was wondering about the same thing but as it applies to cooked food sitting out.

[yorkdude]

May or may not mean anything but I was told 100 years ago to strictly adhere to the “40-140” rule, meaning anything that needs refrigeration shoul not exceed 40. I bend that quite a bit for meat, muscle meat I dont worry too much about but anything ground, my eyes are peeled watching it with temps, 60 max if it is for others. Anything cooked should stay above 140. YMMV and probably if you google it it will make more sense.

[Bar-B-Lew]

May or may not mean anything but I was told 100 years ago to strictly adhere to the “40-140” rule, meaning anything that needs refrigeration shoul not exceed 40. I bend that quite a bit for meat, muscle meat I dont worry too much about but anything ground, my eyes are peeled watching it with temps, 60 max if it is for others. Anything cooked should stay above 140. YMMV and probably if you google it it will make more sense.

I believe you have a two hour window in between those temps per FDA guidelines, but I could be wrong about that.  And, guidelines are usually the floor level so I sometimes stretch the two hour time.  If it is smoked, I stretch it even further.

[elenis]

May or may not mean anything but I was told 100 years ago to strictly adhere to the “40-140” rule, meaning anything that needs refrigeration shoul not exceed 40. I bend that quite a bit for meat, muscle meat I dont worry too much about but anything ground, my eyes are peeled watching it with temps, 60 max if it is for others. Anything cooked should stay above 140. YMMV and probably if you google it it will make more sense.

I believe you have a two hour window in between those temps per FDA guidelines, but I could be wrong about that.  And, guidelines are usually the floor level so I sometimes stretch the two hour time.  If it is smoked, I stretch it even further.

Servsafe which is the certification folks in the food industry are typically required to have, ( my wife is a General Manager of one of the cafeterias at Honda of America Manufacturing) basically states that if food is in the danger zone of 41 to 135 degrees Fahrenheit for 4 hours your required to throw it out. Every 20 minutes food is held within that range that bacterial load in it doubles. So if your talking what the food safety regulators that restaurants must abide by that is what your looking for.

In regards to cutting raw meat on wooden cutting boards the USDA says to wash it with warm soapy water and then dry it, but they recommend using other materials that can be run through the dishwasher. They also recommend sanitizing it with a solution of a tablespoon of unscented, liquid bleach per gallon of  water and then letting it dry. I know checking dishwasher temps and looking at the wear on cutting boards is something the health department loves to look at to ding folks on health inspections. 

[urnmor]

Great comments by others. As to cutting fresh chicken I would recommend a separate cutting board not made of wood for cutting uncooked chicken that can be placed in the dish washer.   

[02ebz06]

We got side tracked into a completely different topic here.

Original post was how long does bacteria stay alive on a cutting board if it did not get washed completely.

[Vmastros]

I don’t understand the need for different cutting boards for different foods. If a cutting board has been properly cleaned, it is clean and if it hasn’t been properly cleaned what difference does it make if you put the same food on it again.

[Brushpopper]

We got side tracked into a completely different topic here.

Original post was how long does bacteria stay alive on a cutting board if it did not get washed completely.

I thought I was the only one who had thoughts like that.  I often wonder how things were way back when.  I doubt the cooks in the chuckwagons on cattle drives were the cleanest fellas.

[BigDave83]

We got side tracked into a completely different topic here.

Original post was how long does bacteria stay alive on a cutting board if it did not get washed completely.

I thought I was the only one who had thoughts like that.  I often wonder how things were way back when.  I doubt the cooks in the chuckwagons on cattle drives were the cleanest fellas.

 They no doubt had better immune systems, and didn't run to a doctor every time they had a runny nose.

[Bentley]

Foodborne-illness causing bacteria can remain on surfaces for a very long time. Campylobacter can survive in your kitchen for up to 4 hours, and Salmonella can last for up to 32 hours (and both can be found on raw poultry)

USDA

E. coli can survive outside the body from hours to months. It can live in soil for about 130 days. E. coli survives in river water for 27 days and in cattle slurry for 10 days. On stainless steel, E. coli was shown to survive for more than 60 days.

Cleveland Clinic

[hughver]

We got side tracked into a completely different topic here.

Original post was how long does bacteria stay alive on a cutting board if it did not get washed completely.

According to a study by the University of Wisconsin, residual bacteria on a cutting board dies within minutes.