Small probes required for thin foods
Beginning Jan. 1, 2019, the Minnesota food code will specify the type of thermometer that must be used with thin foods.
Use the appropriate thermometer
Using the appropriate thermometer for a particular food provides greater accuracy when taking food temperatures. Using a too-large probe on thin foods may result in a false reading, which could increase public health risk due to undercooking the food.
When you use an appropriate thermometer you can help keep you customers healthy by ensuring safe food temperatures and controlling disease causing microorganisms.
Small diameter probe thermometers required
If your menu includes thin foods such as meat patties and fish fillets (less than ½ inch thick), you will need a suitable small diameter probe thermometer (0.059 inch diameter). Use this thermometer for measuring the food temperatures during:
- Cold holding
- Cooking
- Cooling
- Reheating
- Hot holding
Because a small diameter probe thermometer can safely measure thick foods you can use them to measure internal food temperatures of any food.
You may be used to using a bi-metallic stem thermometer. These are still allowed in limited situations, such as for thick foods such as a large pot of chili or a roast.
Learn more about how to meet requirements
If want to learn more about how to meet the requirements. You can:
Measure utensil surface temperature if you sanitize with hot water
If you use a mechanical dish machine with hot water sanitization, you will need to start measuring utensil surface temperature when the new rule goes into effect on Jan. 1.
You must use an irreversible temperature measuring device, such as a min/max thermometer or color-changing stickers or sticks. With these devices, even after the utensil surface has cooled down, you can still see how hot the surface got during the sanitization step.
Verify that disease causing microorganisms are destroyed
Contaminated equipment is a common cause of foodborne illness. Using one of several simple methods to verify that food-contact surfaces reach 160°F helps operators and regulators ensure that disease causing microorganisms have been destroyed and will help keep your customers healthy.
Even with proper procedures, germs may remain on surfaces after cleaning. Sanitization is a crucial step to reduce the number of germs to a safe level. A goal set in FDA Food Code is to reduce disease causing microorganisms by 99.999 percent (5 log reduction). Scientific studies show that a temperature of 160°F achieves this goal.
Get color changing stickers or a min/max thermometer
You may already be familiar with a method to measure utensil surface temperature in your hot water sanitizing dish machine.
You may have noticed your inspector run one of these though your machine during an inspection:
- Min/max thermometer
- Stickers or sticks that change color when they reach 160°F
Operators will need to have and use one of these devices in order to meet this requirement.
An inspector puts an irreversible min/max thermometer into a high temperature sanitization dish machine to ensure food-contact surface temperatures reach 160 degrees F.
This irreversible min/max thermometer shows the dish machine operator if food-contact surfaces of the bowl and spatula have been sanitized.
Train dish machine operators
Because this is a new procedure, have your certified food protection manager ensure that all dish machine operators know how to meet the new requirements. Train staff to know:
- Where stickers or thermometers are stored.
- How to use the stickers or thermometers.
- How often to test utensil surface temperature in order to verify food-contact surface sanitization.
- Corrective actions if utensil surface temperature does not reach the required temperature of 160°F.
Learn more about warewashing temperature measuring device requirements
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