Paphos Life

On our travels to various resturants it appears a new trend has arrived!

Meals being served on wooden boards.

The question is do you like this style for your food?

Would you not go to a place that did this?

Or

Would you request a proper plate?

Do you think the owners would be upset by asking for a plate?


My view would be. I would request a plate.

Your thoughts welcomed.

Sue b :

We have been served meals in the UK on chopping boards and roofing slates.

No, I definitely prefer plates

A difficult one, it would depend whether or not you would trust the restaurant to keep the boards clean enough, and how would you know ? most plates would go through a dishwasher, so plates for me.

Jackie

Definitely plates - more hygienic. Similarly I like a drink in a glass, not a jar.

Wooden board with a Steak on it - Serrated steak knife leaves potential "cuts" in the surface of the board. No I don't personally like the use of wooden platters.

It would all depend on what meal I was going to have.
A steak & salad or fish mezze, Yes.
Sunday lunch, No.

If the food is good, then a lump of wood isn't necessary. Give me a plate every time.

I also want a glass with my beer bottle, without having to ask the pimply youth behind the bar.

Plates every time for us.

Ceramic plates / dishes for me, too. In UK, some councils are banning the use of wooden platters to serve hot meals in restaurants.

I don't think this is HMG UK-wide legislation as yet, but left to the H&S / Food Standards departments of local councils to decide upon. Certainly in the case of Luton BC, a recent eNewsletter from them reported that during a food safety check on a local ethnic restaurant, the inspector ordered them to STOP using wood platters, on health and hygiene grounds.

The inspector paid a surprise re-visit to the establishment a couple of weeks later, to find that they had completly ignored his order, by still serving hot food on wooden platters. In their newsletter, Luton BC proudly announced that the establishment had been fined £15,000 for breaking local Food Safety regs..

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that all those cuts, cracks, knots, and crevices on a wood platter surface can ALL harbour nasty food-poisoning bacteria, like E.coli, Listeria, Campylobacter, and Salmonella...

How does a restaurant 100% sanitize these wood platters after use? They cannot be put into a high temperature dish washer. Run a blow torch over them, to kill bacteria, perhaps? Truth is, we have NO way of knowing! So stay safe and insist on a proper plate please...

AL

Thank you one and all for your input.

Good post PaphosAL!

I have worked in food factories all of my working life as a QA Manager and as a Operational Manager and know the Hazards and Food Safety issues with using wooden equipment.

Plates for me please at all times.

Do butchers still use a wooden block when chopping raw meat? I can remember in a place that time forgot, my dad scrubbing a block.

I'm pretty sure that most of the butchers I use/ have used here - Garden of Eden, Kolios, Butcher boy, Paphiakos.... all use wooden chopping boards.
I guess the problem is cooked v uncooked meat. In the butchers its uncooked meat and the anticipation is that it will be cooked after sale and germs eradicated.
How many germs are reinstated when a wooden serving plate is used??

I remember when there was talk of butchers not using these.

My point would be that it is for the use of 'raw meat'. Which is then going to be cooked.

I would not have a problem eating meat cut on a wooden block from a butcher's.

Do have concerns of raw meat - bacon being sliced on a machine that is also cutting 'cooked meat'. See it happening alot here.

Sueb

https://www.rowandsons.co.uk/wood/butchers-blocks/

I do not like it when served food on wooden boards ,slate maybe but overall it has to be a ceramic plate with regard to butchers blocks and chopping boards some woods are anti bacterial by nature and hence used in the void and meat industries

https://www.rowandsons.co.uk/wood/butchers-blocks/

I do not like it when served food on wooden boards ,slate maybe but overall it has to be a ceramic plate with regard to butchers blocks and chopping boards some woods are anti bacterial by nature and hence used in the food and meat industries

https://www.rowandsons.co.uk/wood/butchers-blocks/

I do not like it when served food on wooden boards ,slate maybe but overall it has to be a ceramic plate with regard to butchers blocks and chopping boards some woods are anti bacterial by nature and hence used in the food and meat industries