Mistake: Contaminating your cutting boards.
Using a large cutting board makes it easier to prep a lot of ingredients quickly and easily, but it can also be a recipe for cross-contamination.
How to fix it: Sanitize your cutting board before beginning any meal prep. Then use hot, soapy water before and after each use, according to the USDA. Invest in one cutting board to dedicate to meat and another cutting board for produce.
“When people use flimsy thin cutting boards that are too small for the task, they tend to get a little lax with sanitation. Thin cutting boards can also lead to injury as they may slip more,” Beckman says. He suggests investing in a quality bamboo or wood board. And be sure to replace any overly-worn cutting boards with deep, tough-to-clean grooves.
Also, don’t forget to set up a safe space for slicing. “Put a couple of wet paper towels or a kitchen towel under your cutting board to stabilize it on a flat counter,” says Ross Henke, executive chef at Quiote in Chicago, Illinois. “I don’t know how many times I’ve seen my mom chopping vegetables as the cutting board slowly runs away from her, or she balances it ever so slightly over the kitchen sink to ‘make clean up easier.’”
