We find out if a bag made specifically for soaking chopping boards is actually useful.

How do you disinfect your chopping boards? If your answer to that question is “With great difficulty” or “Huh? We’re meant to disinfect chopping boards?” then we would like to introduce you to…

▼ … the Chopping Board Sanitising Bag.

The idea is simple: put your chopping board inside, then add water and detergent, or diluted chlorine-based kitchen bleach, which is commonly used in Japan to disinfect chopping boards.

▼ The bag (袋) comes with an Any Lock (エニーロック) sealing clip and a funnel (じょうご) for pouring in liquids.

The bag is designed so the chopping board can be fully submerged while floating inside, with the airtight seal helping to prevent any cleaning-agent odours from escaping.


When we tried it out, we were happy to find that the medium-large size that we’d ordered easily fit our large 37 × 22 cm (14.6 × 8.7 inches) chopping board. Alternatively, it’s roomy enough to fit two medium-sized chopping boards.

▼ After sealing the opening securely with the Any Lock clip…

▼ … the centre flap lifted slightly, making it easy to pour the cleaning detergent in using the funnel.

We ended up using around 600 millilitres of liquid to fully submerge the board. Because the bag is sealed shut, oxygen-based bleach should not be used.

Once the soaking is complete, simply pour the liquid out by sliding the Any Lock clip halfway open.


To dry the bag, simply hang it up with a peg. The inside can take a little longer to dry, so if you place something sturdy like a chopstick inside to keep the bag open, it helps to speed up the drying process.

▼ When not in use, the bag can be folded away for compact storage.


After using the product, we found it had some pros and cons. Starting with the pros, the biggest advantage is that you can soak both sides of the chopping board, as well as the edges, evenly in one go. Not having to repeatedly change the water or flip the board over made things much easier than expected.

If you have small children or pets, the product is particularly useful as you don’t have to worry about them accidentally touching the detergent solution if you were cleaning it in a filled sink, for example. The securely sealed bag gives you extra peace of mind. The main downside, though, is that you can’t put it away until the inside has completely dried, so be prepared for it to lie around taking up space for a while after you use it.

So can you live without this sanitising bag? Well, yes, but you can also live without sanitising your chopping boards too. If you do like to err on the side of caution by disinfecting your boards as many recommend doing, then this is a surprisingly useful little kitchen helper. The M-L size has a recommended retail price of 1,100 yen (US$6.76), and it can be purchased at Iwatani retailers and online shopping sites like Amazon and Rakuten.

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