Cleaning wood cutting boards with lemons and salt: Does it work?

Cleaning professionals and social media users are touting lemon juice and salt as a grainy concoction that can remove stains and grime from wooden cutting boards.

But does it work? Many in the #CleanTok community – a subculture of cleaning experts and fans on TikTok – seem to think so.

Several videos, each with thousands or millions of views, show salt getting rubbed onto cutting boards with sliced lemons, which is said to remove unwanted buildup and odor from wooden surfaces.

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From table salt to sea salt, nearly all TikTok users and lifestyle bloggers who have tried it reveal on the video-sharing app that the technique works. Here’s why.

The cleaning science behind lemons and salt

Lemon juice and salt are two kitchen-grade ingredients that offer a variety of cleaning properties.

Lemon juice

The citric and ascorbic acid in lemon juice can remove other acidic stains, such as pigmented fruit or coffee, according to a science-focused “DIY Cleaning with Citrus” article published by Limoneira, one of the largest lemon producers in North America.

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Lemon juice can also remove limescale and alkaline stains, including calcium carbonate and rust.

“The acids in lemons and other citrus fruits make them good choices for cleaning cutting boards, knives, plates, and other surfaces that come into contact with acidic stains,” Limoneira’s cleaning guide states. “Typically, the acid attacks the staining material and softens it, making it easy to wash away.”

Lemons have antibacterial properties that “create a hostile environment” where many types of bacteria cannot thrive, including salmonella, E. coli and more.

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Limoneira states that the acids in lemon juice neutralize odors and are ideal for freshening up surfaces that have touched pungent ingredients, such as fish or certain vegetables.

“With fish, for example, the odor is called by chemicals called amines. They react to the citric acid in lemon juice and form salts,” Limoneira’s cleaning guide states. “Those salts dissolve in the liquid of the juice – or water that you can use to rinse.”

Limoneira notes that combining lemon juice with alkaline compounds, such as baking soda (a type of salt also known as sodium bicarbonate), makes for “an even more powerful cleaning solution.”

Salt

Salt is a crystalline mineral that’s long been considered a natural cleaning agent capable of disinfecting and breaking down buildup on tools and surfaces.

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Morton Salt, Inc., the leading salt producer in North America notably launched a line of “electrolyzed sanitizing equipment” in 2022 because salt remains an effective cleaning ingredient.

Grains of salt typically kill bacteria on contact through osmosis, a process by which water or another solvent pass through a semipermeable membrane.

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A science-focused cleaning article on the disinfectant properties of salt published by Koyuncu Salt, a Turkish salt producer, states that salt is a “microbial inhibitor” that can prevent bacteria growth because the mineral has “dehydrating effects on bacterial cells.”

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Though, the salt manufacturer notes that salt can’t kill all bacteria.

The rough composition of salt contributes to the seasoning being an effective natural scrubber that can get rid of hard-to-remove grime.

Owners of cast iron skillets often use salt to remove ingredients that are stuck on their pans.

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Does it damage wood?

There’s no evidence that lemon juice and salt DIY cleaning concoctions damage wood cutting boards, but owners should be aware that occasional oil applications are necessary in order to prevent cracks and splinters in wood.