Can using moldy wooden cutting boards cause liver cancer?

Liver cancer is one of the three most common cancers in Vietnam. This disease is related to toxins produced by mold. So is a wooden cutting board the culprit causing liver cancer?

Recently, a post has been spread on the internet about the fear of liver cancer after the story of a family of 3 people with liver cancer in China, and the main killer is aflatoxin found on moldy wooden cutting boards.

Moldy cutting board obsession

The story was quickly shared by everyone because it directly related to every family. Almost every family has the habit of using wooden cutting boards, plastic household items, especially plastic boxes to store and preserve food.

According to the sharing, using a wooden cutting board “when cutting or chopping food on the cutting board, debris will stick to the cutting board surface. Over time, these things will transform into bacteria that are dangerous to the body. Of which, aflatoxin, a toxin produced from mold, is considered the most dangerous.

Aflatoxin causes biochemical effects on cells leading to teratogenicity and cancer. Aflatoxin is also considered the strongest carcinogen. If 2.5 mg of aflatoxin is absorbed in 89 days, only 1 year later the human body will show symptoms of liver cancer.

It is worth noting that normal cleaning cannot remove aflatoxin. Aflatoxin can withstand very high temperatures, up to more than 280 degrees Celsius. Therefore, boiling water is completely useless. To prevent disease, everyone must know scientific methods of sterilization. It is best to dry them in the sun after cleaning the cutting board.

Are moldy wooden cutting boards dangerous?

Talking to us, Dr. Hoang Dinh Chan - former doctor at the Central Cancer Hospital (Hanoi), said that the cause of liver cancer is a toxin produced by fungi called aflatoxin B1.

Studies by Hanoi Medical University show that aflatoxin B1 is present in the liver tissue of 83.3% of primary liver cancer patients. The toxins of aflatoxin B1 have been warned a lot about its relation to daily diet, when we put these toxins into our body, and they reside in the liver causing liver cancer.

Aflatoxin is a white crystal, heat-resistant, does not decompose when cooked at normal temperatures (at 120 degrees Celsius, it must be boiled for 30 minutes to lose its toxic effects), so it can exist in food without the presence of corresponding molds; at the same time, it is very resistant to digestive enzymes. There are 17 different types of aflatoxin, but the most common and toxic is aflatoxin B1.

Which molds contain aflatoxin?

Professor Nguyen Lan Dung - President of the Vietnam Biology Association is concerned that people are eating very dirty food, eating many carcinogenic substances found in vegetables, food... including toxins from aflatoxin.

Professor Dung said that aflatoxin B1, which causes liver cancer, is a toxin secreted by some molds, but this toxin is not secreted by all types of molds such as moldy cutting boards, moldy chopsticks, etc.

According to Professor Dung, this type of natural mold is produced in cereals. For example, aflatoxin is found in moldy peanuts, corn, some other oil seeds, in rice, cassava, moldy milk and food products processed from these ingredients such as rice, sticky rice, soy sauce, wine that are naturally fermented with mold also produce aflatoxin.

Professor Dung warned that aflatoxin B1 is present in foods such as soy sauce, which in some places is still made by hand and allowed to grow naturally, making it very easy for this toxin to form.

According to Zing.vn