What should a cook do if a thermometer loses accuracy due to being bumped or dropped?

When a thermometer loses accuracy, calibrating it is the essential step to ensure that it provides precise temperature readings once again. Thermometers can easily become misaligned or uncalibrated due to physical disturbances like being bumped or dropped. By calibrating the thermometer, a cook can adjust its readings to match a known accurate standard, thus restoring its reliability for measuring food temperatures.

Calibration typically involves placing the thermometer in either ice water or boiling water and adjusting the reading to match the known freezing or boiling point of water, depending on the method being used. This process helps maintain food safety by ensuring that temperature-sensitive foods are cooked and held at safe temperatures.

While using a different thermometer or disposing of the inaccurate one might seem like solutions, they do not address the fact that a thermometer can often be restored to proper functioning through calibration. Cleaning and sanitizing the thermometer is important for food safety, but it does not solve the problem of inaccuracy that arises when a thermometer is physically disrupted.