Food Resistant Finish

[Chief Sawdust Maker]

Hi All
I am working on a project for a regular customer making serving boards from British Oak
The boards need to be finished in a food resistant finish, not a food safe finish.
The boards will carry a number of dishes containing various dips, melted cheese, garlic butter, tomato salsa. no food will actually be served off the board, but the boards is likely to receive spillages of the contents of the bowls,
These will be used in a busy restaurant.
The client is ok with the oak darkening due to the finish but wants to retain a natural look i.e. not plastic looking so a resin or lacquer yacht type varnish isn't going to be suitable.
Has anyone any experience or thoughts?
I am currently producing some samples to coat with various finishes to test in my own kitchen and also to send to the client for them to test in their kitchen.
My top thoughts so far are either a Hard Wax Oil or a wipe on Satin Poly.
Any comment will be gladly recieved.

Thanks
D

 

[Katomi woodsmith]

Hiya I have a number of products have you looked at the chestnut range of products. I just looked at one of my items

Organicook Food Safe Mineral Oil, 250ml Chopping Board, Food Grade Wood Oil, Nut Free Allergen Free​

Pm me if I can help

 

[Chief Sawdust Maker]

I use a lot of Chestnut products
I am about to try a sample of Chestnut Hard Wax Oil to see if it hols up

 

[--Tom--]

Satin poly sounds more aligned with your described usage.

 

[Chief Sawdust Maker]

Satin poly sounds more aligned with your described usage.

Any particular brand?

 

[Katomi woodsmith]

Can you let me know how you get on with the hard wax oil .. via pm please

 

[Owd Jockey]

Have a look at Osmo TopOil (high solid). I used it on a number of large platters, which contained food.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

I am guessing that these boards will receive frequent use, possibly 2-5 times per day, and will be wiped over by damp cloth (+ detergent??) after each use. Frequent maintenance and/or refinishing is likely to be undesirable.

I suspect a hard matt or satin finish would be preferred. Although no expert, I imagine oil based finishes would rapidly deteriorate under hard use and become visually unappealing even if they were still hygienic.

My inclination would be a hard wax oil or polyurethane varnish.

 

[Jillos]

I’ve used Fiddes hard wax oil (which comes in a variety of colours - I mainly used ‘English’ which is a med/dark oak colour and can be mixed with clear to lighten). It’s good stuff, have used on bathroom furniture for our bathrooms and it’s held up really well. Does have a bit of a sheen to it, but you can’t have durability without the sheen…