These might be more of what you are looking for:
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=16895555

To be honest it just sounds like your husband doesn't care. I'm not sure if labeling the cutting boards is really going to make that much of a difference.

Bed Bath and Beyond has three options for labeled cutting boards. Scroll down on this link to see them.

Here is a link that might be useful: BBB Cutting Boards

I agree. I don't think even a label on plain English will make a difference with your DH. Is he just confused or does he not care?

Doesn't your raw meat board go through the DW? Don't tell on me, but the small plastic board I use for raw meat that I clean in the hot DW is sometimes used for cutting fruit if my walnut board is too fragrant from onions and garlic.

Ok, I have to ask...what does DH stand for? Daft Husband?

Ha, ha, DH is Dear Husband.

I wouldn't call it not caring, just not remembering.
BIG letters would be harder to ignore.

I like the idea of the Casabella ones, but they aren't DW safe and seem flimsy. I'm looking for something more substantial. The others have tabs/hooks sticking out and I just want a regular rectangle.

Thanks all.

I only use wood cutting boards (I don't trust the other types) and just label one with a red sharpie on a short edge on both sides: RAW MEAT ONLY. Seems to work with teenage DS and DH. I have to redo the sharpie every few months but it's minimal trouble.

Honestly, if you clean your cutting board it should be fine in any event to cut raw veggies on it or eat off it if it's clean. I scrub with soap and water then splash a bit of white vinegar on mine, let it sit a few seconds and then rinse and air dry. I use the labeling as an extra safety too but it's probably overkill.

How about colored boards.
Green for veggies
Red for meat
White for your DH to use for himself(or his favorite color)
I have a wood, plastic, and a couple Corian boards. My Meat one is white and my veggie one is green.
DH knows not to use the green one for meat.

My GF owned a small market and used a large wooden block table to "butcher" meat. He cleaned it with salt and a heavy wire brush.

Olivertwist- I think it might be easier to find a new husband who can follow which cutting boards to use and which to avoid. Maybe switch to a red and green board and that will be easier for him to remember. Its not a very complicated system so I really doubt his memory is that bad. The fact that he decided a cutting board was a better choice than a plate leads me to believe he will just grab the first thing available no matter what. Maybe he just needs his own set of cutting boards.

I'm with breezy, as long as your boards go through the dishwasher there is no need for separate meat and veg
boards. Maybe the things I cook are not as complex, but when preparing my ingredients I always do the nonmeat ingredients first followed by the meat ingredients. If there is a need for separate cutting boards I just do the nonmeat stuff on a wooden board (which never ever touches meat) or on a a different sized board.

Sharonite- Your comment about only using wood cutting boards is troubling and confusing. Although there may be some disputes about how much bacteria a wood cutting board can harbor, I would never choose a wood board over a plastic board from a food safety point of view. Plastic is nonpourous and dishwasher safe, wood is not. I don't think you can ever get a wood board sanitized as well as you can get a plastic board. There is a reason wood cutting boards are not used in commercial kitchens.

Maybe you can hold off on getting a new husband. See my link below. Its a bit pricey though.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.epicureancs.com/color-coded-cutting-boards.php

I have only one cutting board for everything, e.g., raw meat, veggies, fruit, rolling out pie dough, misc. food prep, etc. It's acrylic or somesuch and I wash it frequently, esp. after cutting meat. So far, no cross-contamination foodborne illness, best I can tell. It's easy and I don't have to go, where is my "Garlic" board or the one for "Pork Butt"?

Pressed for time I admit to having eaten off mine, standing at the sink.

This post was edited by linelle on Sun, Mar 31, 13 at 14:52

Actually, wood boards harbor less bacteria. The data has been linked here before, though I don't have it handy.

When we bought this house, neither one of us had lived anywhere but home (I lived in a dorm for one year, but it was tiny). I had to make a massive trip to Walmart for everything from a broom, to towels, to cutting boards to get us started. His mom picked out a nice plastic cutting board and thought I was being difficult insisting on wood. When we got home, I asked DH which he would prefer, and he said definitely wood because of the bacteria. Haven't heard a word about it from MIL since!

The Epicurean one is exactly what I was looking for, thanks!
Why aren't there more like this out there??

But please, not more insults about my husbans...what if he reads this?

You'll notice I mentioned the debate i of plastic v. wood in my previous post. There is data going both ways. One thing we can both agree on is that both boards will have bacteria on them if you don't sanitize them properly. Personally I'd rather rinse the plastic board and toss it in the dishwasher then scrub a wooden board and then spray it down with vinegar or bleach.

Don't get three different cutting boards! It's a proven fact that men can remember two things but not three. You can test this yourself. Tell him you need milk and eggs from the grocery store. He'll say okay. Then add a third thing. He'll say, "Hold on, I better write this down."

I bought a non-flexible color-coded set at Target a few years ago, but I see it isn't available anymore. I found these and they look like a good, sturdy hard-to-ignore-the-difference solution.

Here is a link that might be useful: Color-coded cutting boards

Olivertwist - if you think your lovely husband will finally get with the program just because you have the cutting boards labeled, you are sadly mistaken.

Our powers of inattention are only matched by the disdain we hold for other men that ask for directions.

As for replacing V1.0 husband with V2.0, please consider this:

"This is a very common problem women complain about, but it is mostly due to a primary misconception. Many people upgrade from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 with no idea that Boyfriend 5.0 is merely an ENTERTAINMENT package. However, Husband 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and was designed by its creator to run as few applications as possible.

Further, you cannot purge Husband 1.0 and return to Boyfriend 5.0, because Husband 1.0 is not designed to do this. Hidden operating files within your system would cause Boyfriend 5.0 to emulate Husband 1.0, so nothing is gained. It is impossible to uninstall, delete, or purge the program files from the system, once installed. Any new program files can only be installed once per year, as Husband 1.0 has severely limited memory. Error messages are common, and a normal part of Husband 1.0.

In desperation to play some of their âÂÂold timeâ favorite applications, or to get new applications to work, some women have tried to install Boyfriend 6.0, or Husband 2.0. However, these women end up with more problems than encountered with Husband 1.0. Look in your manual under âÂÂWarnings: Divorce/Child Support.â You will notice that this program runs very poorly, and comes bundled with HeartBreak 1.3. I recommend you keep Husband 1.0, and just learn the quirks of this strange and illogical system."

"I'm a man. . . . and I can change. . . . if I have to. . . . I guess." (Red Green)

Good luck
Doc

Here is a link that might be useful: Click here for further Husband 2.0 details.

I assume that neither you, your husband, nor other family members have gotten food-borne illnesses up to this point. Unless you have family members with compromised immune systems, you should just chill out. Obviously, make a point of washing a cutting board with hot water and soap after cutting raw meat on it, particularly chicken , but you really don't need to be fanatic about separate cutting boards. Too many people these days are too fanatic about over-sterilizing things with the result that people end up with more allergies and compromised immune systems than ever before. I saw a segment on a news program that using hand-sanitizer more than once a day is actually not good for you - better to just wash your hands with soap and water..

This post was edited by weissman on Sun, Mar 31, 13 at 12:11

Most people don't realize the stomach virus is really food poisoning.
If you use plastic, germs can get caught in the cracks. Wood cracks are "self healing". I have seen mold grow out of plastic boards but not "Corian".
A wood cutting board can last a lifetime with proper care
My plastic ones are tossed every couple years. My Corian versions are going strong after 18 years.
I do wash my plastic ones in the DW and hope to gain a couple more Corian boards of various sizes.
My one wooden one was a wedding present but it is so pretty that I hate to use it too much.
My turkey board is wood and I clean it just like grandpa (see above)

I plan to ditch plastic downstream and stick to Corian and wood

Corian seems like too hard of a material to cut on. Seems like it would dull knives a lot faster than wood or a softer plastic board. Corian also seems like it would get a lot more slippery when wet which could be dangerous.

If you saw mold growing out of a plastic board then that was definitely not maintained correctly. The situations in which mold would grow out of plastic are no different than the situation in which mold would grow out of wood.

The fact of the matter remains that plastic can go in the dishwasher and wood cannot. DIshwasher is guaranteed clean presuming you load the dishwasher properly. Wood boards are pretty but they require a lot more upkeep to keep them clean.

I did leave a plastic one in the DW over vacation and never put wood in the DW but interesting how the mold or whatever grunge grew from the cracks. It made me think about the different board styles.
My Corian boards are 18 years old and the knives are even older. I have had them sharpened 2-3 times during this time period- the rest of the time, I just hone them.

Back to OP - whatever material you use- color or labeling might help or hide all cutting boards and have one just for DH.
Please accept my apology for side tracking the post.

If you correctly sanitize them it is not an issue.

And plastic turned out to be far worse tan wood for harboring bacteria.

Plastic has all sorts of nicks and scratches after a short period of use and no antibacterial properties.

Ever wonder why trees to not ALL rot from the inside out?

Sorry, OT, but I'm copying and saving Doc's post...LOL...

The OP has specified non-wood boards, but I think that is not a good choice. I would ditch the plastic cutting boards entirely and get one good wood cutting board from a company like Boos. Also, Etsy has a number of woodworkers selling home-made wood boards, and many are lovely as well as useful. This way, you can put an end to this silly issue with your DH, have less chance of bacteria contamination (see below), and be better to your knives.

Plastic boards are not so great for the longevity of your knives, and will dull your knives faster than a wood cutting board. And, as has been mentioned by a couple people on this thread, wood boards are actually safer than plastic. The first study to prove this was by researchers at the University of Wisconsin, and their findings were that wooden boards are significantly safer. Several other studies have been done to challenge the University of Wisconsin's findings, and all have come to the same conclusion.
"The [University of Wisconsin] researchers purposely contaminated wood and plastic boards with bacteria and then tried to recover those bacteria alive from the boards. They also tested boards made from seven different species of trees and four types of plastic. They incubated contaminated boards overnight at refrigerator and room temperatures and at high and typical humidity levels. They tested several bacteria, Q Salmonella, Listeria, and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli Q known to produce food poisoning. The results consistently favored the wooden boards, often by a large margin over plastic boards.

The scientists found that three minutes after contaminating a board that 99.9 percent of the bacteria on wooden boards had died, while none of the bacteria died on plastic. Bacterial numbers actually increased on plastic cutting boards held overnight at room temperature, but the scientists could not recover any bacteria from wooden boards treated the same way. A major question is why wood is so inhospitable to bacteria. The researchers have tried unsuccessfully to recover the compound in wood that inhibits bacteria, and is continuing the research."

On top of their own laboratory research that wooden boards inhibit bacteria, the UWisconsin researchers were unable to find research that plastic boards are safer. I.e. there has been no laboratory testing, using sophisticated instruments to measure, nothing that could be found to support the idea that plastic boards are safer. When plastic boards come out of the DW, they are sanitary, but according to the test results, that does not last for long.

Here's another study from UCDavis. I think it was done before University of Wisconsin's. The last paragraph is quite interesting. I'll copy it here.

"In addition to our laboratory research on this subject, we learned after arriving in California in June of 1995 that a case-control study of sporadic salmonellosis had been done in this region and included cutting boards among many risk factors assessed (Kass, P.H., et al., Disease determinants of sporadic salmonellosis in four northern California counties: a case control study of older children and adults. Ann. Epidemiol. 2:683-696, 1992.). The project had been conducted before our work began. It revealed that those using wooden cutting boards in their home kitchens were less than half as likely as average to contract salmonellosis (odds ratio 0.42, 95% confidence interval 0.22-0.81). Those using synthetic (plastic or glass) cutting boards were about twice as likely as average to contract salmonellosis (O.R. 1.99, C.I. 1.03-3.85); and the effect of cleaning the board regularly after preparing meat on it was not statistically significant (O.R. 1.20, C.I. 0.54-2.68). We know of no similar research that has been done anywhere, so we regard it as the best epidemiological evidence available to date that wooden cutting boards are not a hazard to human health, but plastic cutting boards may be."

Here is a link that might be useful: UC-Davis Cutting Board Research.

Deleted due to duplicate post (I have to remember not to hit the back button after posting something).

This post was edited by akchicago on Sun, Mar 31, 13 at 19:16

A2gemini- if you are only sharpening your knives once every 6-9 years then you must not use your knives vert often or you are using incredibly dull knives. Even using a wood board knives should be sharpened way more often than that.

It seems like a lot of you are very good at googling articles but not so good at reading comprehension. As I stated in my last post both wood and plastic boards can be sanitized. The question is whether someone will actually take the steps to sanitize the board. With a plastic board all you have to do is throw it in the dishwasher and wash it in a reasonable amount of time. Sure if you leave a wood cutting board sitting around unwashed the bacteria won't grow but do you really want to use a dirty cutting board. That's gross.

Akchicago- I didn't read the full article you posted, but the portion you cite does not jive with what you say. It does not say that a properly sanitized plastic board does not stay clean, it says a plastic board purposefully covered in bacteria does not inhibit further growth. I don't know about you but once I take a board out of the dishwasher it goes in a drawer, it doesn't get exposed to bacteria. If that's not the case for you I suggest you clean your kitchen.

Olivertwist - sorry the can of worms was opened - but hope you got your answer on how to help DH.

*****************
Realism
Thanks for your thoughts - I use my steel quite a bit in between to keep the knives in shape - when they feel dull, I do take them in to be sharpened - but my point is the Corian doesn't seem to dull them prematurely compared to wood and the OP was interested in non-wood versions, so I added Corian to the mix.
I am usually quite supportive on the forum but I think you comments are quite inappropriate assuming that people are not cleaning their kitchens and can't read

Let's play nice and help each other. There is no value added to the snide comments Thanks

I think each person has to make their own decision on what they want to use based on experience and reading. After seeing what happens to plastic, I am not convinced that you ever get rid of the grunge in the cracks - I still have a number of them but use cautiously even though I thought they were right when I bought them and have bought others since then.

I have not seen any studies on Corian and bacterial growth.

Realism wrote: "Akchicago- I didn't read the full article you posted, but the portion you cite does not jive with what you say. It does not say that a properly sanitized plastic board does not stay clean, it says a plastic board purposefully covered in bacteria does not inhibit further growth. I don't know about you but once I take a board out of the dishwasher it goes in a drawer, it doesn't get exposed to bacteria. If that's not the case for you I suggest you clean your kitchen."

Oh for crying out loud Realism, stop being insulting. Just stop it. You are entitled to your opinions about cutting boards; it's great that you want to advise the OP that you believe plastic is preferable. The point of the forum is to give advice. But there is no cause for you to make condescending remarks about cleaning my kitchen. Going forward, can you control your compulsion to do that all the time? Your posts with their lectures and put-downs do not jibe with the friendliness and civility of the Kitchens Forum.

I've quoted the studies from the University of California-Davis, and the University of Wisconsin. Your comments don't address the findings that "those using wooden cutting boards in their home kitchens were less than half as likely as average to contract salmonellosis (odds ratio 0.42, 95% confidence interval 0.22-0.81). Those using synthetic (plastic or glass) cutting boards were about twice as likely as average to contract salmonellosis; and the effect of cleaning the board regularly after preparing meat on it was not statistically significant." Why don't you write the researchers at UCDavis and University of Wisconsin with the exact comments you wrote to me, and let us know how they respond?

This post was edited by akchicago on Mon, Apr 1, 13 at 3:02

Am I the only one that uses glass cutting boards? I know they are noisy but I feel like I can really get them clean. When I get done using one I either put in DW or wash by hand. Also I am very gentile when I am cutting. To me it seems like the wood and plastic get little cuts in them where germs would get in. But then again I'm not the greatest cook : )

Hide your cutting boards and buy him ones that are easy to find! Problem solved!

I use the same wood boards for everything and wash between each use. I also rub salt into them(when I remember)after washing with soap and rinse. Never had a problem.
I have however had a general feeling of malaise when eating a meal prepared at a restaurant...but that's probably related to the food not a hygiene thing.