Any food business requires an accurate record-keeping of temperatures to be successful. In other words, thermometer calibration is the act of verifying whether your thermometers are reporting the correct temperature or not. It’s a simple process that takes just a few minutes to do. Therefore, it is essential to have an up-to-date thermometer calibration record.
The majority of thermometers can be calibrated following two basic procedures as explained below-
- For measuring higher temperature, the thermometer should be calibrated in boiling water
- On the other hand, for measuring lower temperature thermometer should be calibrated in ice water
In either case, special care must be taken by the staff members to prevent the thermometer from contacting the container being used. This could result in erroneous temperature readings. Hence, it is essential to have good record-keeping for the thermometer calibration.
On the other hand, the temperature of the food being prepared needed to be checked regularly. So that the poor temperature control can be controlled on time. As a result, will help in saving your customers from food-borne illnesses. An effective thermometer calibration record ensures that food and beverages are produced and stored at specific temperatures to maintain their quality.
This checklist must include the following steps to determine the accuracy of temperature probes as per HACCP concerns.
- Date and time of the calibration
- Temperature record for cold water
- Temperature record for hot water
- Initials of the worker who performed the calibration
- If any foul found then corrective action must be taken
Most importantly, thermometers that are found to be inaccurate or unable to measure the actual temperature should either be manually adjusted or serviced by a professional. And thermometers that have a history of deviating from actual temperature measurements should be discarded or replaced.
To sum up, calibration is vitally important wherever measurements are important, it enables food businesses to have confidence in the results that they monitor record and subsequently control.