Developing a food-safe finish for my wooden spoons
54 comments
·December 10, 2025userbinator
Some recommend non-edible petrol-based mineral oil (aka liquid parrafin) because it doesn’t go rancid, but has the same effect of not actually doing much for protection and will leak into hot liquids.
Highly-refined mineral oil is food-safe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_oil#Food_preparation
Why even use wood if you’re going to cover it in a layer of clear plastic?
I find it amusing that those who will use wood or "natural" (petroleum is also naturally occurring...) products for some sort of weird misguided eco-virtue-signaling, inevitably end up needing to basically reinvent the chemistry of finding an inert, durable material that brought us modern plastics. All these drying oils create a layer of polymerised material, which can be classed as plastic anyway. Waxes, regardless of source, attribute their properties to long hydrocarbon chains, just like polyethylene.
dekhn
Ah yes: "Congratulations! You have just completed the cycle of recapitulating the collection of processes which have brought us the present!"
vpribish
well, it's an arts and crafts project and they may value avoiding petrochemical products in the end-product. regardless it's interesting to work through that whole process instead of just accepting it.
DannyBee
100% - this sort of insanity is just silly.
kleiba
My biggest grief with wooden utensils replaceing plastic ones and cardboard(-ish) cup lids replacing plastic lids is the texture - I almost shudder everytime these environmentally friendly replacements touch my mouth, to the point that I eat in the most ridiculous way in order to avoid having to touch the wooden fork when I'm trying to get the food off of it.
And the reason is exactly the finish. Metal and plastic spoons, forks, lids, etc. are nice and smooth and don't get in your way. Cheaply made wood or cardboards ones are rough and tacky.
Of course you could argue that from an environmental standpoint, that's not a bug but a feature: now I'm using even less disposable stuff (first, no plastic because it's been replaced by other stuff; and second also the replacements because I hate using them).
inportb
Try bamboo chopsticks. They are smooth because they are made parallel to the grain. There is minimal end grain surface area, so you rarely have to interact with the rough bits. And they do almost everything you'd want a consumer-oriented utensil to do.
spankalee
This article is talking about high-end hand-carved kitchen utensils. Spoons you cook with, not spoons you eat with.
tom_
The article also has a whole section on a wooden coffee cup!
fanatic2pope
I'm personally on team Robinson. For wooden objects actually used with food, the best finish is no finish.
https://www.finewoodworking.com/2024/10/10/the-best-food-saf...
justincormack
Sure, but the article is mainly about looks (and in the case of wood cups, which seem fairly impractical, although sake cups are ok unfinished, taste transfer). They can look nicer with a finish. I generally dont care, I keep my salad spoons with some oil, and my cooking spoons plain.
mmooss
> Some carvers use urushi lacquer which is the sap from a tree common to Japan.
Urushi is the name of the Japanese tree, Toxicodendron verniciflua (the genus formerly was named Rhus), and of the lacquer of which its sap is the main constituent.
The lacquer is also called urushiol (note, not urushoil), which is also the resinous substance found in other members of the Toxicodendron genus: T. radicans and T. rydbergii, or poison ivy; T. diversilobum and T. pubescens, poison oak; and T. vernix, poison sumac. The resinous oil is what causes allergic reactions.
Which finally gets to my point: What are the allergic affects of the tree, its raw sap, the liquid lacquer, and maybe for hypersenstive/reactive urushiol allergies, the finished lacquer?
I don't meant to be alarmist - people have been eating off urushi lacquer for centuries. I'm thinking more about working with it.
EDIT: For those interested in the scientific aspects of the resin, plants, and allergic reaction:
Aaron C. Gladman MD. Toxicodendron Dermatitis: Poison Ivy, Oak, and Sumac. Wilderness & Environmental Medicine vol 17 #2 (June 2006)
esquivalience
> Which finally gets to my point: What are the allergic affects of the tree, its raw sap, the liquid lacquer, and maybe for hypersenstive/reactive urushiol allergies, the finished lacquer?
The Wood Database can be a useful practical site for this sort of thing. I found [0], a page for a different wood which is said to contain the same allergen:
> The sap contains urushiol (the same allergen found in Poison Ivy), and can still be irritating to some sensitized individuals even after the wood has been dried, and sap can also seep through some wood finishes to the surface of the wood.
Same as poison ivy? Count me out if true: I react badly.
dotancohen
The Wood Database? Thank you for once again reminding me how incredible the Information Highway once was, and could be.
I lament our detour onto the Commercial Highway.
jaggederest
> What are the allergic affects of the tree, its raw sap, the liquid lacquer, and maybe for hypersenstive/reactive urushiol allergies, the finished lacquer?
Essentially the same as for any other urushiol.
I'm highly sensitive and had to ask my partner not to get into kintsugi with the traditional lacquers because even the tiniest spot of urushiol and I will be considering a trip to the burn unit.
I've gotten a very mild reaction from ~century old lacquerware but I wouldn't expect that to be common, once it's fully cured. And just because it's mild doesn't mean it's any less itchy, trust me.
dlcarrier
As a child, my grandmother once accidentally used a poison oak stem to roast a hotdog over a campfire. She hadn't cooked it hot enough to denature the oil, and she reacted to it internally, which required a hospital visit.
Granted, consuming it is the worst-case scenario, but exposure to those oils can be life threatening.
MarkMarine
There are people eating poison oak salad to try to make themselves immune:
https://www.wsj.com/style/eat-poison-ivy-oak-immunity-3207ec...
Aurornis
This is an interesting article, though I wish they had relaxed some of the requirements. Demanding something that both cures fast and is free of solvents seems unnecessarily specific. For hobby projects finishing on a tight deadline is usually not a high priority so longer cure times are an acceptable tradeoff. For larger scale or business oriented projects the use of a solvent can be fine because proper VOC protective gear is not that expensive.
Even for hobby work it’s not hard to get reasonable VOC protective gear or establish a fume extraction hood out of some cardboard and a cheap box fan next to a window in the shop space.
derefr
The author of the article has a woodworking business (linked on the bottom of their homepage: https://gospodaria.com/). So they do need fast turnaround times for profitability.
However, as they mention, they do this work from home, and they don't really have a good setup for VOC protection. From the article:
> In the winter months I carve indoors and have to finish the pieces indoors as well, and the horrible solvent smell fills my house for a whole day.
A jury-rigged fume hood will work if you're doing one item at a time, but it doesn't work if you're doing work in batches.
(I get the impression that the best next step for the author, would be to consider building themselves a humidity-controlled drying shed, which would live at least a few feet from their building's air envelope. Doesn't need to be anything fancy; build an ordinary shed, and then get the small-space HVAC equipment from e.g. a marijuana grow-tent supplier.)
spott
I don’t have the time pressure, so I just use tung oil.
I throw it in a bag and vacuum seal the spoon (with tung oil) for a day or two, then remove, wipe, and let cure for a month.
The resulting finish is largely dishwasher safe for a year or so before I have to reapply. Without the vacuum sealing stage, it doesn’t last as long.
teekert
I use wood only for my non-stick pans. Metal for the metal pans. I sometime put some olive oil on the utensils, but generally, I just use them, put them in the dishwasher, repeat, until they break. They are ~50 cents at Ikea. And so I don't eat any plastics anymore.
Of course, the article is about high end stuff, but I just want to put everything in the dishwasher. Which I presume you can't do with even the best coated high end utensils?
We also switched to wooden Cutting boards, I find them to be pretty annoying as they really go bad fast in the dishwasher and can be quite expensive. We just wash them with boiling water, a bit of soap every now and then.
jmkd
Doesn't make sense to use Osmo Polyx oil as the baseline when Osmo Top oil is the slightly friendlier and equally beautiful food-safe version.
zkmon
I always wondered whether the wooden spatulas and spoons they sell at IKEA are safe to use. I never know what that wood was treated with or coated with.
vages
Perhaps I’m naive, but buying from an IKEA (in Norway) or another big store feels less risky than buying something handmade.
Several people are involved in making every product at IKEA. At least one of them must be an expert in compliance. They can expect scrutiny and product recalls, fines and bad sales if they’re found out.
The one person making the hand-made spoon does not necessarily know all the environmental regulations that should be followed.
hammock
Well unless you are getting solid wood utensils (much more $$ and most aren’t) then you are starting with bamboo glued together with adhesives. So at that point if you are worried about the finish I’d be worried about the glues as well
I get solid wood (olive wood or other woods ) tools and I don’t finish them. But if I did I might just use beeswax
mbrock
I think all wood finishes are "food safe" once they're cured.
clickety_clack
That is a terrible assumption to make. Regular lacquer for example does poorly under temperatures commonly encountered when preparing food and it’s basically a mix of solvents.
DannyBee
It's not a terrible assumption - it's a requirement to sell a wood finish in the US/Europe.
Under temperature, sure, they differ a bunch. But in terms of food prep, no, they are all non-toxic and edible once cured.
jasonthorsness
This is great! I’m going to try the melting carnauba wax in tung oil one. I tried pure tung but it’s too matte for what I want.
Spooky23
The solution is, use a metal spoon.
Wood is great for serving spoons, I have some fancy French ones, you just never dishwash and every few months wipe down with grapeseed or canola oil.
For eating? Wood just is not a good material.
Woodworker and person who has spent a tremendous amount of time on wood finishing chemistry here.
This is very confused.
First, all wood finishes you can buy are food-safe once cured. They aren't allowed to be sold otherwise, at least in the US/Europe/et al.
If you are using them once heated, this is not always as true (and regulations vary a bit), but if we are talking about food prep/salad/you name it, they are all safe.
Second, as for solvents - smell is not everything. The HDI he mentions rubio having will not smell like anything until the concentration is way way way way too high. If you can smell it, you are in trouble. HDI is also much more dangerous than most solvents.
The oil is also a solvent.
Solvents are just things that you can dissolve something else in.
If they want to avoid certain types of solvents for some reason, that should be about safety or something, and if they want to evaluate that, smell is probably the wrong evaluation criteria.
To give one example of solvent elimination with a purpose, let's take VOC's, which are about pollution[1].
Avoiding VOC solvents makes for cleaner air, but again, VOC compliant/exempt/etc solvents vary wildly in whether they are safer for people or not than non-VOC exempt solvents.
[1] not safety to humans, though often highly confused with being safer.