How the Five Compare on the Numbers
A family prep station is where raw chicken and salad get cut ten minutes apart, so the only specification that matters here is whether the maker tells you which board is for which food. One of these five publishes the full scheme. Two publish icons and name the foods without mapping them to colors. One names colors and no foods. One publishes a single white board.
The sets differ in size as well as in labeling. Fotouzy publishes seven mats at 12 by 15 inches, Cooler Kitchen six at 15 by 11.5, GORILLA GRIP four at 15 by 12 and Dexas four at 11.5 by 14. Winco publishes one board at 18 by 24 by half an inch, at 6.93 pounds against 0.72 for the Dexas set.
What the table cannot tell you is whether a color scheme survives a family. Nobody publishes a mark that cannot rub off, and Fotouzy is the only listing that says what its colors mean, so on the other four the meaning is whatever the household agrees. Winco sidesteps it entirely with one white board and an NSF certification.
Which Board Is for Which Food
The One Published Scheme
Fotouzy publishes the sentence a prep station needs: red for meat, green for vegetables, blue for fish, yellow for fruit. That is four foods tied to four colors in the listing itself, and it is the only mapping on this fact sheet. The stated reason is keeping food original and avoiding mixed flavors rather than safety, but the effect is the same.
The set is seven pieces, which is three more than the mapping covers, so at least three mats repeat a color or carry no food at all. Fotouzy publishes 12 by 15 inches, a stated thickness of 1 mm against a field of 0.28 inches, a waffle gripped back, and dishwasher safety below 90 Celsius. It weighs 1.0 pound.
Icons Without a Key
Cooler Kitchen and GORILLA GRIP both publish food icons and neither says which color carries which icon. Cooler Kitchen names six foods: meat, chicken, fish, veggies, fruit and bread, on six mats, so every food gets its own. It is the only listing here that separates bread from the rest.
GORILLA GRIP publishes four mats for five named food types: meat, chicken, fish, veggies and fruits. It states each board features a bold icon to help you identify which food you are chopping, so one of those five shares a board with another. The mats are 15 by 12 inches, which the listing calls oversized, at 1.0 pound for four.
Colors With No Foods, and No Colors at All
Four Named Colors and a Warning
Dexas names its colors in the title, blue, green, yellow and red, and states the purpose plainly: use different colors while cutting to avoid cross contamination. What it never publishes is which color is for what, so the household has to decide and remember. That is the whole difference between Dexas and Fotouzy.
Dexas also publishes the one warning on this page that changes how a board is used: the non slip backing makes these cutting boards not reversible. So a Dexas mat has one working face, and the other three flexible sets say nothing either way. Dexas publishes 0.72 pounds for four, the lightest set of these five, and contradicts itself on size.
One White Board, NSF Certified
Winco publishes no color, no icon and no set. What it publishes instead is a single 18 by 24 by half inch polyethylene board, an NSF certification, a non porous surface stated not to stain or absorb juices, and a temperature range from 176 to 196 degrees Fahrenheit. It is the only certification and the only temperature figure here.
That is the commercial answer to cross contamination: one board, washed properly between jobs, rather than four boards with colors on them. Winco is also the heaviest of these five at 6.93 pounds, and publishes half an inch of thickness against 1 mm on three of the flexible mats here.
Backs, Washes and a Size That Does Not Agree
What Keeps the Mat Still
All four flexible sets publish something about the back. Fotouzy publishes a grid textured waffle bottom and adds a tip: for wet or slippery surfaces, put a dampened paper towel underneath. Cooler Kitchen says the mats are steadiest on a clean damp counter or over a towel. GORILLA GRIP publishes a textured backing and Dexas a non slip backing.
Two of the four are honest about needing help, which is worth more than a claim that the mat grips. A 1 mm mat on a wet granite counter moves, and Fotouzy and Cooler Kitchen both say so in print. Winco needs nothing, because 6.93 pounds of half inch polyethylene does not slide.
Dishwashers, and the Dexas Size
The washing rules split three ways. GORILLA GRIP and Cooler Kitchen both publish top rack only, and Cooler Kitchen adds that skipping the heated dry cycle helps the mats keep their shape. Fotouzy publishes a temperature limit instead, dishwasher safe below 90 Celsius. Dexas and Winco publish dishwasher safe with no qualification.
Dexas publishes two sizes for the same set. The title says 11.5 by 14 inches and the first bullet says four brightly colored 11.5 by 15 inch boards. Its dimension fields read 14 by 11.5 with no thickness, which supports the title, so we have used 11.5 by 14 and left the 15 alone. Nobody publishes a Dexas thickness at all.
Which One Fits Your Kitchen
You want the scheme printed, not agreed. Fotouzy publishes red for meat, green for vegetables, blue for fish and yellow for fruit across seven 12 by 15 inch mats, at a stated 1 mm, with a waffle gripped back and dishwasher safety below 90 Celsius.
Bread needs its own board too. Cooler Kitchen publishes six color coded mats with icons for meat, chicken, fish, veggies, fruit and bread, at 15 by 11.5 inches and 1 mm, top rack dishwasher safe with the heated dry cycle skipped.
You want an icon on an oversized mat. GORILLA GRIP publishes four mats at 15 by 12 inches with a bold icon on each, a textured backing, top rack dishwasher permission, and 1.0 pound for the set.
You would rather assign the colors yourself. Dexas publishes four boards in blue, green, yellow and red, stated for avoiding cross contamination, with a non slip backing that makes them not reversible, at 0.72 pounds, the lightest set of these five.
One board washed properly beats four colors. Winco publishes a single 18 by 24 by half inch polyethylene board, NSF certified, non porous and stated not to stain or absorb juices, with a temperature range from 176 to 196 degrees Fahrenheit.
What We Could Not Verify
Every figure above is a maker’s own published number or sentence, taken from the listing itself. These are the things we went looking for across all sixteen listings on this fact sheet and could not find.
- A color to food mapping from any listing except Fotouzy, which names four.
- What the three extra Fotouzy mats are for, on a seven piece set with a four food scheme.
- A thickness figure from Dexas, whose fields publish no height at all.
- Whether the Dexas boards are 11.5 by 14 inches or 11.5 by 15, since the listing says both.
- Any statement that a printed icon or color survives a dishwasher over time.
- A certification from any of the four flexible sets, where only Winco publishes one.
