One of the most essential, yet overlooked, kitchen supplies is the thermometer. At the very least, a thermometer is necessary to measure the temperature of food – cooked food ready to serve, food in cold storage, even frozen food. Making sure that the food is at a safe serving temperature is paramount to avoiding any foodborne illness, and a thermometer is the only way to accurately measure food temperatures.
In fact, there are many different types of commercial foodservice thermometers, each type made for a different functions. Here are some of the most commonly found thermometers and how they are utilized in foodservice kitchens.
Pocket Thermometer – walk into any fine dining restaurant kitchen or into a culinary class and you will often see the chef with a thermometer in a pocket on their left sleeve. This small pocket is designed for a small probe thermometer that a chef will utilize frequently to measure the temperature of food as it is prepared or before it is being served. Depending on the preference of the chef, they may use a Digital Pocket Thermometer or they may use a Dial Thermometer.
Waterproof Digital Thermometer – many of the digital pocket thermometers are listed as waterproof so that they can be used to measure the temperature in the dishmachine ensuring that water gets hot enough to sanitize the dishware, utensils, etc. There are also dishwashing test strips which can be placed on the washrack or even on a plate to measure and record the temperature of your wash cycle and these strips can be maintained in a log book for a health inspection.
Similar to the dishwashing test strips, T-Sticks Food Temperature Thermometers, are temporary thermometers that can be kept for HACCP records. These thermometers can record a temperature within 5 seconds and turn color once the threshold temperature is reached. Choose from one of three temperature measurements; green captures 140 degrees Fahrenheit for food in water baths or steam tables, black captures 160 degrees Fahrenheit for ground meats, fish, pork and eggs, and brown captures 170 degrees Fahrenheit for meats and reheating previously cooked and refrigerated foods.
If you are measuring the surface temperature of food or an environment or do not want to insert a probe into food so as to not alter the appearance, you would use an infrared thermometer. With the advent of the pandemic, many people are familiar with these types of thermometers from the temperature scans that were taken before entering indoor areas. In the kitchen, these thermometers may be used to quickly scan the temperature of a newly filled food pan before it is taken out to a buffet, or foods in a cold storage walk-in freezer to ensure that foods are at a safe temperature.
Environmental thermometers are often utilized in the storage equipment or areas. These include refrigerator / freezer thermometers or thermometers that also measure humidity. These thermometers and oven thermometers and hot holding thermometers are all helpful to ensure that you are maintaining food at safe temperatures from storage to cooking to serving.
