Ive one of these and it recommends you put oil on it to preserve it and to stop it soaking up meat juices, the oil was a mix of mineral oil and beeswax.

www.casa.com/p/totally-bamboo-large-butcher-block-237543

irish squirrel wrote:

---

Wanted to get your opinion on this matter. I have been using a wooden butcher block all my years as a meatcutter and I come in to work this morning and found that my cleanup person wiped in oil on my block. The oil is a light food grade mineral oil. I talked to a  sales rep today and he said he used to do it when he cut meat years ago. Any one hear of this practice? Is it safe?

=====

That does not sound very sanitary to me.  We used salt with a block brush, then soaked them down with bleach and let that air dry overnight.  When I was an apprentice I had one boss who was very into rubbing everything METAL down with mineral oil, but the problem was he was not into sanitation.  He was more into everything looking bright and shiny than being sanitized.  We didn't even use a germicide, just a hot water hose then oiled everything down (but not the blocks).  Even that hose down was only done on Saturday!  During the week at the end of the day we would just scrape out the saws and slicers the rub them down with oil to make them LOOK clean.  As an apprentice once I "graduated" from cutting 40-50 cases of chicken per day I got moved to the stacker, where we sliced frozen knuckles for chipped steak.  We sold about 60 cases (3600 lbs) a week of these (for "Philly cheesesteaks") and by Saturday when I got to break it down and clean it we always had quite a population of maggots inside.

Back to the blocks, I'm surprised they are even still legal due to the sanitation issues. The last half of my meatcutting career (1981-1996) I only worked on nylon cutting tables, which were much better for sanitation but much harder on your knives.

---

 

I miss my old wood cutting blocks. Scrape, soapy water, sanitizer was all we ever used on them. When we switched from quarters to boxed beef we lost the benefit of all that fat on the block, way more meat juices and in time without all that fat the blocks were destroyed. Inspection would not let me replace them with new blocks but the crappy white nylon. Harder on the knives and studies have shown that the nylon actually harbors more bacteria in all those little cuts from the knives. Wood actually has beneficial bacteria that helped kill off the bad guys.
Bottom line is keep it clean, sanitized and whatever you can do to preserve those wood blocks. They are as big a part of our history as our knives and cleavers. Where would we be without our "butcher block"?

Still allowed to use them here, tried the plastic one once horrid things and very unhygienic.

jimhenry2000 wrote:

---

Good point about the sanitation issue due to all those micro-cuts in the nylon tables.  We sanitized them 4 times a day (12 noon lunch time, end or first shift 5 PM, end of evening shift at midnight, end of night shift 8 am),  plus any time we changed species, so it wasn't an issue, plus a heck of a lot easier than sanitizing wood blocks.  Still they were hell on your knives and you could not use a cleaver on them!

---

 

Did anyone to your knowledge ever fail to or forget to follow this policy during the time your worked there?