Calibrating food storage thermometers.
by tonytran2015 (Melbourne, Australia).
Click here for a full, up to date ORIGINAL ARTICLE and to help fighting the stealing of readers’ traffic.
(Blog No.91).
#thermometer, #household thermometer, #fridge thermometer, #food storage thermometer, #calibration, #food safety, #food poisoning,
Calibrating food storage thermometers.
Figure: A household thermometer with scale from -30°C to 50°C.
Keeping food safe for eating requires storing them at correct temperatures. This requires the use of thermometers as the difference between safe and unsafe temperatures is not easily perceptible otherwise. Household thermometers are usually of the range of -30°C to 50°C and they are made for managing the safe storage of food as well as managing the interior temperatures of houses. Any household thermometers in use must be accurate as faulty ones may cause food to be mistakenly stored in the dangerous bacterial growth zone (4°C to 60°C) resulting in food poisoning.
Thermometers can be bought at very low price (about $3 for a plastic thermometer of 40 cm, 16 inch in length, as in the photo) from general stores but they ARE NOT guaranteed to be accurate and users have to calibrate thermometers themselves before use. The calibration is not simple to ordinary people as the ranges of these thermometers encompass only the temperature of melting ice (0 degree C or 32 degree F) but NOT the temperature of boiling water (at 100 degree C or 212 degree F).
This blog shows you how to calibrate household thermometers using no specialist instrument.
1. Required tools.
Calibrating a household thermometer requires:
a. Ice cubes to provide meting ice.
b. A large bowl to contain melting ice cubes and water.
c. One water kettle to provide boiling water.
d. Two identical cups or glasses
e. One bigger cup or glass with double the volume for mixing water from the above two identical cups.
2. Creating melting ice temperature.
Place some ice cubes in water drinking water in a glass or cup and let it melt. Stir the water thoroughly. The water is then at melting ice temperature. Dip the household thermometer into the water to verify its melting ice temperature.
The thermometer can now be used to check that some water is at the temperature of melting ice.
3. Creating boiling water temperature.
Boiling water is obtainable from the water kettle.
4. Creating half way (50°C = 122°F) temperature.
Pour one full cup of 0°C water contained in one of the identical cups into the bigger mixing cup.
Pour one full cup of 100°C boiling water contained in the other of the identical cups into the bigger mixing cup.
Stir the water thoroughly. The water is then at the temperature of 50°C. Dip the household thermometer into the water to verify its 50°C = 122°F temperature.
5. Usable thermometers
Figure: A convenient electronic desk thermometer for home use. However being electronic does not guarantee its accuracy.
A usable thermometer should give correct readings for both temperatures of melting ice and of 50°C = 122°F.
Any error at either or both these established temperatures will lead to errors at other readings of the scale. The errors may cause dangerous consequences when applied to food storage.
The following is a dangerous food storage thermometer I have kept to prove that dangerous instruments do exist.
6. An example of dangerous fridge thermometers.
Figure: A re-calibrated, previously faulty (dangerous) fridge thermometer.
The fridge thermometer in the photograph here was actually outrageously faulty making it a dangerous food storage thermometer. Its original markings are still visible under my re-calibration marks (Red marks are for positive including zero and blue marks are for strictly negative temperatures.).
Readers can see that the original markings are quite faulty:
Original indicated -28°C is actually -10°C
Original indicated 10°C is actually 25°C
Just imagine what may happen to any trusting thermometer owner using it to prepare for the storage of his food at indicated 0°C, which is actually 10°C. The latter temperature is actually in the DANGEROUS bacterial growth zone (4°C to 60°C).
My re-calibration has been double checked using a laboratory thermometer. The original markings were unbelievably faulty.
References
[1]. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/food-safety-and-storage
[2]. https://www.foodsafety.com.au/resources/articles/safe-food-storage-tips
[3]. https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/Health/Food-safety/Storing-food
Related HOW TO blogs:
Rice as emergency food., posted December 24, 2016
Mung Beans as grains for self-reliance.
Latest
How to Blogs,
Understanding-foreign-trading-with China (Beware-of-strangers-bearing-gifts),Vietnamese-sour-soup-of-minty-indian-taro-canh-chua-bac-ha, Do not click on any unknown link external to your trusted sites, Understanding-the-strategy-of-conquering-by-over-populating, Understanding Allying to Distant Powers to Subjugate Immediate Neighbours, Understanding the Strike then Consolate Tactic , Understanding China’s Perpetual Wars against its neighbours , Air-grown mung bean sprouts for food, Mung Beans as grains for self-reliance, Simple determination of East Asia lunisolar New Year…all
Home Page (Navigation-Survival-How To-Money).
BLOG IMAGE OF CONTENTS HOME PAGE
SUBSCRIPTION: [RSS – Posts], [RSS – Comments]
MENU: [Contents][Blog Image of Contents ][Archives ] [About]
Very good article post.Really looking forward to read more. Much obliged.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow, awesome blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you make blogging look easy. The overall look of your site is wonderful, let alone the content!
LikeLike
Thank you for the suggestion but that idea is what I steered away from. A video would take up a lot of space while offer little information. However, I may try to add some animated gif pictures as illustrations in the future.
LikeLike
Have you ever considered adding more videos to your blog posts to keep the readers more entertained? I mean I just read through the entire article of yours and it was quite good but since I’m more of a visual learner,I found that to be more helpful well let me know how it turns out.
LikeLike
Hi there, I found your blog via Google while looking for a related topic, your site came up, it looks great. I’ve bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
LikeLike
I was just looking for this info for a while. After 6 hours of continuous Googleing, finally I got it in your website. I wonder what’s the lack of Google strategy that do not rank this type of informative websites in top of the list. Normally the top web sites are full of garbage.
LikeLike
Just wish to say your article is as astounding. The clarity to your submit is just cool and that i could assume you are a professional in this subject. Well along with your permission let me to clutch your feed to stay updated with drawing close post. Thanks one million and please continue the rewarding work.|
LikeLike
Excellent items from you, man. I’ve remember your stuff previous to and you’re just extremely fantastic. I actually like what you’ve received here, really like what you are stating and the way by which you say it. You are making it enjoyable and you still care for to stay it smart. I can not wait to read far more from you. This is really a wonderful web site.|
LikeLike
I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme.
Did you design this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you?
Plz reply as I’m looking to design my own blog and would like
to find out where u got this from. kudos
LikeLike
I am excited for this! I have never discovered a post
as interesting article like yours. It’s pretty.
Is it OK to share on Reddit? Keep up the fantastic work!
LikeLike
Please see my ABOUT.
LikeLike
Very cool. This post is great, my sister is totally into this.
I will tell her for sure. Is it OK to share on Google+?
Keep up the terrific work!
LikeLike
You are welcome to re-blog or quote. Please read my ABOUT.
LikeLike
Thanks very nice blog!|
LikeLike
Its like you read my mind! You appear to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with a few pics to drive the message home a bit, but other than that, this is magnificent blog. A fantastic read. I’ll definitely be back.|
LikeLike
Thank you for the good writeup. It in fact was a amusement account it. Look advanced to far added agreeable from you! By the way, how could we communicate?|
LikeLike
Please see About of this site.
LikeLike
Hello there, I found your blog via Google whilst looking for a related matter, your site got here up, it appears good. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
LikeLike
hello there and thank you for your information – I have certainly picked up anything new from right here. I did however expertise some technical issues using this website, as I experienced to reload the web site a lot of times previous to I could get it to load properly. I had been wondering if your web host is OK? Not that I am complaining, but sluggish loading instances times will very frequently affect your placement in google and could damage your quality score if ads and marketing with Adwords. Well I am adding this RSS to my e-mail and could look out for a lot more of your respective fascinating content. Make sure you update this again soon.|
LikeLike
Wow, that’s what I was seeking for, what a data! present here at this blog, thanks admin of this site.|
LikeLike
Reblogged this on .
LikeLike
Thank you, Brittius, for re-blogging.
LikeLike
You’re welcome.
LikeLiked by 1 person