I bought a commercially made butcher block table, and when I refinished it a
few years back, I found a product called Behlen Salad Bowl Finish, certified
as food safe. I always put a plastic cutting board on the table for chopping
food, but very often, the chopped food ends up being dumped onto the table
while more gets chopped. Nothing has managed to stain this finish after
several years. As others have mentioned, NO finish will protect against the
mechanical savagery of knives, meat cleavers, etc.

Go to www.garrettwade.com, and search for the word "Behlen". It's twelve
bucks a pint, or twenty for a quart. Went on easily, turned out nice.

-Doug