When checking a food’s temperature, a food handler should monitor the thermometer until the reading

The most suitable tool for measuring safe cooking temperature in a restaurant or any food establishment setup is a common kitchen thermometer. Regardless of the cooking method or cooking utensil used to prepare the food, cooking thermometers would be the best tool for measuring temperature.

A thermometer is an essential kitchen tool that can be a standalone unit or equipped as a basic kitchen appliance. With this, food thermometer accuracy must also be assured. It is the most practical tool to measure the temperature of even the thinnest foods to keep customers safe from foodborne illnesses.

Food thermometers come in different shapes and sizes. Some of the most common types of thermometer include:

• Bimetal food thermometer
• Oven thermometer
• Digital thermometer
• Infrared thermometer
• Liquid-filled thermometers with glass stems

A properly calibrated thermometer would be able to accurately tell you whether the food being prepared needs additional cooking or if it is already safe to eat. It is essential to regularly calibrate your thermometers for exact temperature readings and to avoid inaccurate readings. Use the ice water method and boiling point methods for this operation.

To help you monitor your food safety progress, use appropriate monitoring logs. Find out which food safety document is the best fit for your food safety operations from our HACCP plan template hub. Use our cooking temperature logs for monitoring your food cooking temperature or our thermometer calibration forms for recording your calibration readings. The best thing about these food safety documents is that they are all free! You can download and distribute them to your team for your everyday operations.

To help you understand how to properly use a thermometer, here are some frequently asked questions about this topic:

What is the proper way to use a food thermometer?

A food thermometer must be always cleaned and properly calibrated before use. Your thermometer will come in contact with food which can cause cross-contamination.

Follow these steps for reading the temperature of foods using a thermometer:

1. Clean and sanitize the tip of the kitchen thermometer.

2. For solid foods: Slowly insert the thermometer probe at least ½ inch deep into the thickest part of the food, avoiding fat portions and bones.

For liquid foods: Insert the thermometer probe up until ¼ above the bottom of the vessel.

3. Make sure that the sensor of the thermometer probe is inside the food.

4. Wait for the reading to stabilize before recording the temperature. Allow at least 15 to 20 seconds for the correct temperature to register.

5. Once recorded, remove the thermometer and wipe it clean.

What are the three rules for using a food thermometer?

When using a food thermometer, consider the following rules:

1. Calibrate your thermometer properly;
2. Clean the thermometer before and after use to avoid cross-contamination;
3. Insert the food thermometer into the thickest part of the food to acquire the core temperature.

How do you use a digital food thermometer?

Unlike a regular bimetallic or dial thermometer, a digital instant-read thermometer features a digital read-out or digital display. After inserting the digital thermometer at least 1/2 inches deep into the food, it will automatically give you a temperature reading. Allow the reading to stabilize for 20 to 30 seconds to avoid inaccurate temperature readings. 

How can you help my team keep in mind measuring meat cooking temperature? 

There are more ways to help your employees measure cooking temperature than just providing them with a helpful poster. More pressing matters such as timely execution of food safety operations and more accurate recordkeeping require more advanced solutions. With the constantly changing scenario in the food industry, your team needs to keep up by getting a smarter solution to solve everyday problems.

Food safety operations undeniably take too much time to perform but are requirements if you want to keep operating and serving customers without causing foodborne illnesses. Achieving food safety compliance also needs a lot of admin work such as filing and keeping all documents organized correctly. With all the many different food safety operations needed to be performed in a day, the risk of forgetting a food safety task increases for food handlers. 

In addition to our "How to Use a Food Thermometer" poster, we also offer a smarter digital solution for your food safety operations. At FoodDocs, we have developed a digital solution for your food safety plans to help food businesses maintain compliance and protect customers at the same time.

To help you make food safety operations more efficient and effective, we have included some of the most common monitoring operations in our digital solution. When you avail of our services, you can get the following benefits: 

• Save your employees' time. Our digital monitoring forms are equipped with an auto-fill feature to help your team save time from repetitive filling. The information that we use is based on your previously logged data.

• Get detailed instructions. Not only do we generate monitoring forms, but we also help food employees learn how to perform food safety tasks. With our monitoring logs, we have included a set of detailed step-by-step instructions for a particular task that is important in every food business. New food employees can use this feature to facilitate the onboarding process.

• Get smart reminders. To help every food handler remember a task that needs to be done, our system can send intuitive notifications through our mobile application. This feature can also be used to remind food handlers of any perishable food that is about to expire. Reduce waste and remember all food safety tasks with our digital solution.

🏠

Subjects

➗

🧪

🏛️

📺

🤝

💻

💰

📚

Resources

📓

🏆

💯

❓

🔀

🍔