How To Choose The Best Food Scale
If you are a restaurateur or a fitness geek, then
food portioning scales are an inseparable part of your everyday life. However, food-scale functions are not so limited. These scales are often used in commercial settings, baking industry, retail food outlets, food testing laboratories etc. Also, these weighing scales can be of great assistance for your everyday cooking.
Your everyday kitchen is where all the magic happens, whether you are preparing a feast in the holiday season or cooking a delicious meal for a hundred guests. Recreating your signature dish every single time, while maintaining exact same taste and minimum waste can be a daunting a task unless you are pro at mentally converting grams into cups or vice versa. Nevertheless, all this mental exercise is tiring and may not yield you accurate results. Thus a good quality food scale can be a valuable addition in your kitchen.
Your task of buying a good quality food scale can become easy if you are well equipped with basic information about food scales.
What Are Food Scales?
Food scales are specifically used for weighing fruits, vegetable or meat and convert them into specified portions. By using these scales you can have great control over how much food you are putting on a plate in one serving.
There are two basic types of food scale;
1. Digital Scales
Digital scales weigh more precisely and their digital display allows users to read the output value easily. This quality makes food scales perfect baking companions.
2. Mechanical Scales
Mechanical scales do not have display screens and have no electronic parts incorporated. Instead these scales work on spring mechanism and are consists of trays or pans to weigh your everyday kitchen ingredients.
Apart from above mentioned basic distinctions, commercial weighing scales are also categorized into legal for trade scales, receiving scales, specialized scales such as baker’s dough scale and hanging scales etc.
Which One Would You Choose, Digital or Mechanical?
Most weighing scales available in the market today give reasonably accurate results and are suitable for everyday weighing purpose. However, if you want the scale to be very precise then choose electronic food scales. If not, opt for mechanical scales, as they do not require any battery backup and easy to handle. Choose weighing scale based on your requirements.
How To Choose The Best Food Scale?
To choose a food scale, whether digital or mechanical, it must have the following features;
Whether you are choosing a weighing scale for a commercial purpose or for domestic kitchen use, first criteria is to determine how much do you want to weigh at a single time? However, remember that maximum weighing capacity includes weight of your ingredients including the weight of the container.
A weighing platform is a great advantage for restaurants and commercial settings. The platform provides support for weighing objects that are longer in length and makes the weighing process much easier.
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Scale must be made from Food Grade Materials
Make sure that the scale you are buying is made from materials that are crack and dent resistant and is free from any carcinogenic materials. The material quality will ultimately determine the longevity of the weighing scale.
If the scale enables continuous weighing, the tare feature allows you to weigh a new item by resetting the scales as you weigh, without you needing to remove the previously placed item. This is especially a great feature for baking purpose as you can mix all the ingredients one by one as the recipe proceeds forward.
Bench stability is important in order to avoid inaccuracies in final output weight. Ensure that your weighing scale sits perfectly horizontal on the surface and does not move as you operate the scale.
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Heat and water resistance
As your weighing scale is going to be constantly in contact with liquid food items, the temperature of your oven or cooking stove, it has to be water and heat resistant. Also, it has to have a surface that is easy to clean any spillage. Nevertheless, you must always keep your food weighing scale clean to maintain its accuracy.
Imagine how distracting it would be if you find it difficult to read and operate the weighing scale. Thus make sure all controls on the scale work properly and are easy to use.
Last but not least do some research to find a weighing scale that suits your function perfectly and is also affordable for you.
Make sure weighing scale you are choosing is easy to repair and can be taken at the nearest facility of
scale repairs in Melbourne. Because all scales, at some point will require maintenance or an occasional repair, regardless of their high quality. Thus opt for food scale with at least a few years of enforceable warranty and service ability.