Best Cutting Board for Raw Meat and Poultry

OXO's Everyday board is 12.8 by 8.8 inches and 0.4 inches thick. Both sides are nonporous plastic that OXO says resists odors and will not dull a knife, the tapered edges double as handles, and a channel around the edge with pouring corners catches juice. Non-slip feet hold it on the counter.

It is the right size for trimming a few pieces of chicken or portioning a steak, and small enough to fit any dishwasher rack or sink. At this price there is no reason not to keep it only for raw meat.

Skip it if you break down whole birds or carve roasts. Twelve inches runs out of room fast, and the larger OXO below is the better board for that work.

The catch. Too small for a whole chicken or a roast.

This is the board found in restaurant kitchens: half an inch of high-density polyethylene, 15 by 20 inches, NSF certified, dishwasher safe and sold in the HACCP colors professional kitchens use to keep foods apart. Yellow is the conventional color for raw poultry and red for raw meat, so a yellow board leaves no doubt about what it is for.

At half an inch thick it is stiffer and heavier than the OXO boards, which means it stays put and does not bounce under a cleaver. America's Test Kitchen's favorite large plastic board is a Winco of the same size, its Statik model with rubber grips; this is the plain version without them, so a damp towel underneath helps.

Skip it if your dishwasher rack cannot take a 20 inch board, or if you want a juice trench. There is none, so carve on something else.

The catch. No grips, no trench, and it is heavy to wash by hand.

Epicurean makes this board in the USA from Richlite, a paper composite, in natural with a slate accent. The listing describes it as nonporous and knife friendly, says it will not absorb odors, and rates it heat resistant to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. One side has a juice groove; the other is flat, and a hole at the end makes it easy to hang.

It is a fair compromise for a kitchen that wants one board for raw meat that does not look like a restaurant board. The two-tone color also makes it easy to recognize as the raw board.

Skip it if you want the board to feel soft under the knife. The surface is harder than plastic or wood, and knife marks show as fine scratches.

The catch. A hard surface that shows scratches and is noisier under the knife than plastic.

Material's MK Free board is a biocomposite of natural clay minerals and biopolymers, made in Finland, and the maker says it is free of permanent microplastics. The listing describes the surface as nonporous and suitable for raw meat, poultry and fish, and rates the board dishwasher safe, with no oiling, warping or cracking to manage.

The large size is 17.5 by 12 inches and only a quarter inch thick, with a juice groove and a hanging hole. The Ocean blue is easy to keep apart from a wood board.

Skip it if you want a heavy board that stays put on stone. Material itself suggests a damp cloth underneath on quartz or marble.

The catch. Light and thin, so it can slide on a smooth counter.

The Folio set is the system a careful household ends up wanting: four boards, each coded by color on its non-slip feet for raw meat, fish, vegetables and cooked food, standing in an angled stainless steel case that lets air circulate between them. Retailers give each polypropylene board as about 9.5 by 13.5 inches.

The boards go in the dishwasher; the steel case is wiped with a damp cloth. The textured surface is meant to mark a little with use, Joseph Joseph says, which is kinder to knives.

Skip it if you cook large cuts. The boards are small, and none has a deep trench. The same set in a plastic case costs about half as much.

The catch. Small boards, and a lot of money for four pieces of plastic.