robin wood > gallery > using woodware Many people use my plates and bowls as everyday tableware. They are sealed with a natural vegetable oil and can be washed in warm, soapy water. If desired, the surface can be periodically re-oiled using a little walnut or sunflower oil. In our current alarmist society wood has sadly been outlawed from the kitchen as "unhygienic" and largely replaced by plastic products. You can imagine my delight when I came across some research by Dr Dean Cliver comparing plastic and wooden chopping boards after use. The full report is very long, but <here> if you want it. The following are some extracts: "We began our research comparing plastic and wooden cutting boards after the U.S. Department of Agriculture told us they had no scientific evidence to support their recommendation that plastic, rather than wooden cutting boards be used in home kitchens." "Our safety concern was that bacteria such as ... E-coli and Salmonella, which might contaminate a work surface when raw meat was being prepared, ought not remain on the surface to contaminate other foods that might be eaten without further cooking. We soon found that disease bacteria such as these were not recoverable from wooden surfaces in a short time after they were applied, unless very large numbers were used. Wooden boards that had been used and had many knife cuts acted almost the same as new wood, whereas plastic surfaces that were knife-scarred were impossible to clean and disinfect manually, especially when food residues such as chicken fat were present." "Although the bacteria that had disappeared from the wood surfaces were found alive inside the wood for some time after application, they evidently do not multiply, and they gradually die." What more is there to say, other than we have used wooden plates and bowls every day for many years. They don't break when the kids drop them, we wash them up with the rest of the dishes and they give us great pleasure!