There Is More Than One Reason You Should Clean Your Food Thermometer

Food thermometers are an important tool in your kitchen arsenal. If you want to know the ideal temperature for perfectly cooked chicken, you need a food thermometer to make it happen. Plenty of celebrity chefs swear by this little gem that helps you test the internal temperature of your foods. Bobby Flay revealed on his podcast, Always Hungry with Bobby Flay and Sophie Flay, that if you want to know if a food is fully cooked, you need one of these babies to know for sure. The Iron Chef likes to keep his instant-read thermometer and his deep-fry thermometer within arm's reach when he's cooking. 

But there are many virtues to having a food thermometer and actually putting it to use. According to MasterClass, when you use a food thermometer, you are ensuring your foods hit that internal temperature that kills bacteria that can put you and the people you cook for at risk. By using a food thermometer, you also don't have to worry about cutting into some of those tender cuts of meat and risk, losing all that juicy succulence you've been working to achieve in the process, just to see if it is cooked through. However, if you do use this kitchen gadget, you need to keep it clean for multiple reasons.

Taking care of your kitchen gadgets and your kitchen gadgets will take care of you is a philosophy to live by. MasterClass reports that you need to clean your food thermometer after each use just like you would any other kitchen gadget. Cleaning your food thermometer not only ensures it is ready to use the next time you need it, but it also helps put an end to spreading germs. You would never put your food thermometer in a piece of chicken and then pop it into a steak without cleaning it first. This keeps your food and the people who are eating it safe. Additionally, you can't expect your food thermometer to give you an accurate reading if it is coated in grease and food remnants from the last time you used it. 

When it comes to cleaning your food thermometer, there are many different methods you might read about from using rubbing alcohol to sticking the thermometer in boiling water to sterilize it. But the method the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommends is washing it by hand with hot, soapy water. The USDA also notes you do not want to submerge your food thermometer in water. As Buy The Thermo Pro suggests, the best way to keep your food thermometer in good working condition is to clean it by hand to avoid possible "fogging" and "condensation."