How do I sanitize a cutting board or countertop?

Wash the board or counter with hot, soapy water, rinse it, apply a sanitizer labeled for food-contact surfaces exactly as its label directs, and let it air dry. USDA recommends washing boards with hot, soapy water after each use, then rinsing and air drying or patting dry [1], and CDC says to sanitize any surface that raw meat, poultry or their juices touched, "including the inner sink" [2]. The sanitizer step needs a product whose label includes food-contact directions, because those directions say whether you rinse afterward. This page walks through the routine, the difference between wood and plastic boards, and why it prints no bleach ratio of its own.

When the sanitizing step is needed

Everyday crumbs and spills need cleaning, not sanitizing. CDC's household guidance calls for sanitizing in two kitchen situations: after raw meat, poultry or their juices touch a surface, and on food contact surfaces after a natural disaster [2]. Add a third from common sense and CDC's advice to disinfect when someone is sick: a kitchen shared with someone ill. Everything else on this page assumes one of those reasons applies. For the broader picture, see when you actually need to disinfect.

The routine for a countertop or sink

1. Clear and scrape. Remove food scraps and packaging. Put raw-meat wrappers straight in the trash.
2. Wash. Hot water and dish soap, with a cloth or brush and enough pressure to lift film. Sanitizers work on clean surfaces; dirt reduces how well these chemicals work [3].
3. Rinse with clean water to remove soap. Soap residue left under a sanitizer is the same problem as dirt.
4. Sanitize with a product whose label includes food-contact surface directions. Apply it the way the label says and leave it wet for the full contact time the label gives.
5. Rinse again only if the label says so. Some food-contact products require a potable water rinse after the contact time; others say no rinse is needed. EPA's List N tool sorts registered products by exactly this, with separate surface types for "Food Contact No Rinse" and "Food Contact Post-Rinse Required" [4].
6. Air dry. Wiping with a used towel puts back what you just removed. USDA allows patting dry as an alternative for boards [1]; if you do, use a clean towel or paper towel.

Do the same for the sink basin and faucet handles after handling raw meat. CDC names the inner sink specifically [2].

Cutting boards: wood or plastic

USDA says you can choose "either wood or a nonporous surface cutting board such as plastic, marble, glass, or pyroceramic," and that nonporous surfaces are easier to clean than wood [1].

Two practices matter more than the material. USDA suggests one board for fresh produce and bread and a separate one for raw meat, poultry and seafood [1], so a raw-meat board never touches salad. And a board with deep knife grooves is hard to get clean by any method, which is why USDA says to discard it [1].

A note on surfaces: a label states which surfaces the product covers, and EPA's List N tool keeps hard nonporous and porous surfaces as separate categories [4]. A wood board, an unsealed stone counter or a butcher block is porous. Check that the label names the surface before you use it there, and check what the product does to the finish; stone and wood counters are covered on which cleaners are safe on granite, wood, grout and stainless steel?.

Reading the food-contact directions

A sanitizer or disinfectant label is organized by use. Look for a heading or paragraph that names food-contact surfaces. It will give you:

• The dilution, if any. Some products are ready to use; others are concentrates with a stated amount per gallon for food-contact use. Use that amount and no more. EPA warns against assuming that twice the amount does twice the job [5].
• The contact time for food-contact use, which may differ from the time for other surfaces.
• The rinse instruction. No rinse, or rinse with potable water after the contact time [4].

If a label has no food-contact directions, the product is not labeled for that use. EPA also says not to apply disinfectants to food itself [5]. Washing produce is a separate question with its own USDA advice, and no sanitizer label covers it.

EPA's definition of a sanitizer is worth keeping in mind here: sanitizing "kills bacteria on surfaces using chemicals. It is not intended to kill viruses." [3] For raw-meat cleanup, bacteria are the concern, so a food-contact sanitizer is the right tool. If someone in the house has a stomach virus, a sanitizer label is the wrong one; look for a disinfectant that lists the virus and has food-contact directions. Choosing and reading a registered disinfectant shows how.

Why this page prints no bleach ratio

Bleach is a common kitchen sanitizer, and many sources print a bleach-and-water ratio for cutting boards and counters. They do not agree with each other. USDA's cutting board page gives one figure [1], University of Florida IFAS Extension prints a different sanitizing ratio [6], and CDC's bleach page, the source followed for disinfecting, does not give a food-contact figure at all [7].

So this page gives none. If you sanitize with bleach, use the food-contact sanitizing directions printed on your bleach bottle's EPA-registered label; that dilution, contact time and rinse instruction are what that product was registered to do. If your bleach label has no food-contact directions, use a registered food-contact sanitizer instead. CDC's disinfecting dilution is on making a bleach disinfecting solution and is a disinfecting figure, not a food-contact sanitizing figure.

Whatever you use, use it alone. Bleach must not meet vinegar or any acidic cleaner, including one you used a minute earlier on the same counter; see is it safe to use one cleaner and then another on the same surface?.

Homemade sprays and the kitchen

A vinegar spray or a soap-and-water mix is fine for the wash step. It is not a sanitizer. EPA does not review household ingredients like vinegar for germ killing [8], and no homemade mix has a tested food-contact contact time. For what vinegar was shown to do in the laboratory, see does vinegar disinfect?.

Getting the wait right on the counter

The sanitizer only works if the counter stays wet for the time on the label. What to do when a surface dries early, and why the times vary, is on contact time.

References

1. USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Cutting Boards, undated. https://www.fsis.usda.gov/es/node/3305
2. CDC, When and How to Clean and Disinfect Your Home, last reviewed January 31, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/hygiene/about/when-and-how-to-clean-and-disinfect-your-home.html
3. U.S. EPA, What's the difference between products that disinfect, sanitize, and clean surfaces?, last updated October 8, 2026. https://www.epa.gov/coronavirus/whats-difference-between-products-disinfect-sanitize-and-clean-surfaces
4. U.S. EPA, List N Tool: COVID-19 Disinfectants, last updated September 15, 2026. https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-registration/list-n-tool-covid-19-disinfectants
5. U.S. EPA, Cleaning and Disinfecting factsheet, April 2021. https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2021-04/documents/cleaning-disinfecting-one-pager.pdf
6. University of Florida IFAS Extension, Homemade Household Cleaners (FCS3319), Amanda Griffin and Randall A. Cantrell, Release Date October 7, 2025. https://ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/FY1449
7. CDC, Cleaning and Disinfecting with Bleach, last reviewed April 24, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/hygiene/about/cleaning-and-disinfecting-with-bleach.html
8. U.S. EPA, Can I use common household substances to kill the novel coronavirus?, last updated July 28, 2026. https://www.epa.gov/coronavirus-and-disinfectants/can-i-use-common-household-substances-kill-novel-coronavirus