I have been given a lovely piece of solid oak, shaped into a chopping board, but it looks a bit 'raw'. Does anyone know what I could use as a sealant that would be safe to use with food preparation?

Olive Oil? Just a random guess, but my thinking is that you would lightly brush it with the oil and let it soak in, maybe repeat a couple of times??

Don't use any kind of cooking oils on it. It will make the board rancid in time. Have a look at this link before you do anything. Go to a butchers shop and ask what they use.
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Here is another link. You can use walnut oil. I use walnuts cut in half and rub them on my wooden furniture. Covers up slight scratches and polishes up nicely.
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Many thanks for the helpful comments and links. I hope I can get the mineral oil in this country, if not I shall try walnut oil. May try the beeswax finishing treatment too and make a proper job of it. Thanks again.

I use groundnut oil as it has no strong scent. I would not use walnut as it has a strong scent and goes rancid quite quickly. Beeswax is fine for furniture but not for food prep. Keep the board clean with soap and water and dry well, oil occasionally with a light touch. Lovely idea an oak board! Should last a lifetime. One of my boards is olive wood and it is a joy to own, not that I do heavy chopping on that.

David

Any type of sealant or finishing treatment would be superfluous unless you are just going to use the board as kitchen decoration. All wooden boards need to be scrubbed thoroughly with a hard bristled brush, in the direction of the grain, after using for food preparation, which would remove any of the oils or treatments used on it!
Lobbers

There is much out there on the web that is worth checking out. Myself I do as Lobbers has said and give it a good scrub with a hard bristle brush, this is how I had to do it when I worked in a butchers many years ago. I do that about once a week, every day when I was in the butchers.

Then I always use any leftover squeezed lemon halves and rock salt to give it scrub whenever I have used a lemon.

Finally the only oil I use is mineral oil and then just when I feel like it. I never use any other oil, whether it be olive, groundnut or otherwise because they can go rancid, or so I have been told - and I confess I can see the logic behind that.

Purely personal method and not meant to be contentious.

Thanks everyone for the good advice. I have been on a couple of websites, as recommended by Snowlight and mineral oil was mentioned on both. Where do you buy yours TerryDox? I confess I have never heard of it. Would it be from a hardware shop, or chemist?

Shall certainly do the scrubbing regularly and re-oil from time to time.

Hi Vic, I got the newest bottle of mineral oil from Ikea - it is called Skydd.

Have had a wooden chopping board for 17 years and never done anything to it but wipe it and occasionally scrub it clean. No need for any sort of oil as there should be plenty of natural oil in the wood itself and it will "acquire" other natural oils as you chop stuff on it.

Thanks TerryDox and RedInGlasgow. I appreciate all your help.

No problem Viv glad to have helped a little. Sorry for the typo in your name and ending up calling you Vic