Remember when your mum told you “don’t put that in your mouth because you don’t know where it’s been!”? Turns out, she was quite right.
Be mindful when purchasing products that are designed for food preparation which are manufactured from recycled or reclaimed timbers. The wood may have been exposed to a number of chemicals over its lifetime as flooring, cabinetry, or in the building structures of some of our most contaminated old factories and warehouses. There may be a residual of chemicals embedded into the grain structure (nasties such as toxic adhesives, insecticides, insect faecal droppings, lead, etc.) which cannot be fully washed away, sanded out or cut off.
If you don’t know the timber’s full history, it’s impossible to know that it’ll be safe for food preparation. Reclaimed timber certainly has a place in the home, but not with food safety. New timbers are by far the best option as their provenance is known from germination and they are harvested in a controlled environment.
