Thread: Kitchen Spoons: Wooden or Plastic

After years of loyal service my household wooden spoon has been thrown out. It has been accused of harbouring germs and so is to be replaced by a plastic type. I thought this was quite unnecessary since a) we mostly used it for stirring food cooking in a hot pan and b) scratched plastic surfaces hide germs as well. A quick search on the net revealed that it is mostly thought that plastics are better but some people say wood (especially pine) is in fact more resistant to bacteria.

So where do your loyalties lay? Does clinging to your old wooden spoon present a health risk or is it all just spin to promote these plastic moulded usurpers?

I think, metal spoons are better. Considering fact, that wooden have folds and thus are worse to clean, so bacteria can stay there. We have stainless steel spons, but very old silver spoons . . . but I didnt used to eat with them . . . but my mum does.

I think metal spoon might be the best. It's hygienic and long lasting. But the downside is that metal spoon can not be used with teflon pans. It scrapes the teflon off.

Definitly wooden - no doubt about it, hides all those nasty germs and bacteria (in the grain and cracks) - so you get used to them and become immune... Whatever you use, as soon as they come out of the wash and into contact with air then things start to settle on them.....

almost like megabrain : wooden spoon are not very clean, and nobody will want to use them in a hospital.

That's said for cooking, wooden spoon are better than iron ones. If your pan is coated with teflon, it's much better to use wood, or silicon ...
I don't like to eat teflon

Like doc, I love a mouthful of silicon.....

Wooden spoons are definetly more hygenic because they contain natural bacteriacides that kill anything that might be harmful

I voted metal because that's all I have ever used. Although, personally I prefer a good set of wooden chopsticks. I'll eat anything with chopsticks.

I also agree with Megabrain that you might as well not worry about it that much because bacteria and whatnot can boost your immune system; keep you tip-top.

Originally Posted by Nevyn

Wooden spoons are definetly more hygenic because they contain natural bacteriacides that kill anything that might be harmful

what? what do you mean by bacteriacides?? write some example . . .

fer cookin': wooden spoons is best.
fer eat'n: metal spoons is best.
:wink:

i'd have to go for wooden, it doesn't really hurt that much when you get 'spanked', i suppose you'd call it, with a wooden spoon.

of course that was back in the day when being punished wasn't as easy as cutting of the internet for 24 hours.