Color-Coded Cutting Boards

Cross-contamination, or transferring harmful bacteria from one food product to another by way of contaminated tools, equipment or hands, is a common cause of food-related illness.

Cutting boards are a prime culprit in many cases of cross-contamination. Therefore, using separate, color-coded cutting boards for different ingredients is a great way of preventing cross-contamination.

Using Color-Coded Cutting Boards

The colors help you keep track of which cutting boards are for reserved for which types of foods, so that you're less likely to cut lettuce on the same board you just used for prepping raw poultry.

Sound complicated? Fortunately, you don't need to adopt the entire system in order to cook more safely at home. Even having one separate, distinctively colored cutting board that's reserved just for raw meat is a great idea — one that will go a long way toward minimizing your chances of a food-related illness.

Here are the different cutting board colors and their meanings:

• Green: Fruits & Vegetables
• Yellow: Raw Poultry
• Blue: Cooked Food
• White: Dairy Products
• Tan: Fish & Seafood
• Red: Raw Meat

Rubbermaid offers a complete set of color-coded cutting boards including all the colors listed above. The set also comes with a coded storage rack with a dedicated slot for each board. Each of the colors is available separately, too, in case you don't want the whole set. Compare prices.