Food scales are a great addition to your kitchen appliance arsenal. They help with weight control in terms of measuring portion size, calorie counting, and meal prep.
In a rush? I like the Ozeri Touch III Digital scale.
They are also great tools for cooking and baking in terms of proper measurement of ingredients, as well as waste reduction. Below are several popular food scales with a wide variety of features to make meal prep easy and accurate. Find the one that suits your unique cooking style and preferences.
Nourish Digital Scale
The Nourish digital scale is one of the most comprehensive food scales you can find on the market.
Tells you more than just weight
It has the regular weighing features of a typical food scale, but on top of that, this model comes preprogrammed with nutrition facts for up to 2,000 food items. This makes it easy to track and potentially cut back on factors like fat, sodium, carbs, etc.
Look at the Nourish Digital Scale at Amazon.
Add your own entries
In addition to this extra information, the Nourish Digital Scale also lets you customize up to 99 extra nutrition entries. If there’s an ingredient you use that’s not one of the preprogrammed items, program a new item once and it’ll remember the nutrition facts for next time.
Etekcity Multifunction Kitchen Scale
The multifunctionality and special features of the Etekcity scale make it worth the price.
Here’s the Etekcity at Amazon.
Removable bowl
For meal prep purposes, the Etekcity has a removable bowl that is great for measuring both dry and liquid foods and ingredients for your recipes. This removable bowl feature also makes cleaning a breeze.
Unique extras (like a kitchen timer)
It has precise digital weight sensors and an LCD screen with large font, as well as a stainless steel finish which ensures durability. The Etekcity also comes with a built-in temperature sensor to tell you how hot it is in your kitchen (good to know when baking) and a kitchen timer. I don’t know about you, but when I’m making a big meal, I always seem to need one more timer.
On the large side
One of the only drawbacks of this model is its size. It takes up a decent amount of counter space, and although the bowl is removable and that can remedy this issue to a point, finding storage may still be an issue.
Drop Scale Connected Kitchen
Drop Kitchen offers you one of the most innovative features of the bunch.
See the Drop Scale Connected Kitchen at Amazon.
Bluetooth connectivity
It has a Bluetooth connected app that gives you hundreds of cooking tutorials, recipes, visual guides, and more. It also tracks the progress of your recipe with a hands-free option, using the sensors and weight of the scale.
Phone & app required
The only catch with the Drop is that there’s no display on the scale itself, so your phone and the app is required for use.
Ozeri Touch II Digital Scale
This white (or red or aqua) minimalist scale is one of the most accurate available.
Head to Amazon to see the Ozeri III scale.
Accuracy and capacity
Its sensors measure the weight of the food or ingredients down to a twentieth of an ounce. On top of that, it can handle up to 18 pounds. It has an automatic shut off feature, saving you on battery life, and also features a backlit screen.
Food safety feature
One of the unique features of the Ozeri is also its emphasis on cleanliness. It has antimicrobial agents built right into the scale itself that stays on and keeps working even if you scrub it clean. This prevents bacteria from building up and ensures freshness and protection for your food.
Salter Bamboo Kitchen Scale
The Salter bamboo kitchen scale is all about clever convenience. It looks like a regular, high-quality bamboo cutting board, but a sneaky display slides right out from underneath, showing the weight of the ingredients on the cutting board. Chop up your ingredients and weigh them in one easy step! It also holds up to 11 pounds, so it can handle basically all of your meal prep projects.
See the Salter scale at Amazon.
AccuWeight Digital Scale
As the most affordable option on the list, the AccuWeight is a simple scale that will measure accurately. With a standard digital display, an automatic shut off feature, and an 11-pound capacity, you get a lot of bang for not so much of a buck with this handy food scale.
Check out the AccuWeight scale at Amazon.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I measure food inside bowls or recipients on the scales that are flat? How do I do it without including the weight of the bowl?
Let me introduce you to the term “tare”. Tare is what a container weights when its empty. A lot, if not all scales have a tare button or option so you can measure the weight of food without counting what the container weights. It is really easy to use, you just need to put the bowl or container empty on top of the scale, it will say a number equivalent to the weight of your bowl, then just hit the Tare button and the number will be zero, still with the recipient on top of the scale! Now just add your food or anything you want to calculate and that’s it.
There are some scales like the Nourish Digital Scale that instead of a tare button it has a Zero Button which works exactly as the tare function. Also, if you want to weigh more than one food in the same bowl, add the food, hit tare, and the readout goes to zero.
Is there a maximum weight for these scales?
Yes, most scales will let you weigh up to 11 lbs but there are some that can get up to 18 lbs. Still, for most recipes, you won’t need to measure anything heavier than that and if you do you can do different measures to get to the amount you need but it’s rare.
How can the Nourish Digital Scale tell you the nutritional value of something you are weighing? How does it know what product it is?
This scale lets you view nutrition facts for 2000 foods that are included in its database, but how does it know what product you are putting on the scale? Well with an app called Nourish Perfect Portions. In this app, you will get a code for each of the 2000 foods. So let’s say you want to measure an apple; you will look for the code of ‘apples’ in the app, introduce it in the scale and then just weight your apple, that way you will read calories, total fat, sodium etc and the actual weight of the product.
What’s awesome about this scale is that if you get a product that is not included in those 2000 foods from the database you can save up to 99 new products with new codes of your own.
How should I clean all the buttons and screens on my scale?
This is super easy, no need to worry. You should never put your scale right under the sink and wash it as you would with a plate because as you said it has buttons and electrical parts that could get damaged by water. The correct way to clean your digital scale would be with a water damped cloth just to remove any dust or food residues. Never use harsh and strong products like thinner or ethanol because they are too abrasive and could scratch the surface. You may add a little of regular dish soap to ensure a sanitary surface but only if necessary.
I’ve heard a lot about calibration but I don’t quite understand it. Why should I calibrate my scale and how often should I do it?
Calibration is a way of assuring your scale is telling you the correct weight when you put something in it because the accuracy of balances and scales becomes less reliable over time. This is not because it’s damaged or broken but just because of normal wear caused by regular use and external factors maybe like mechanical shocks if you let it fall or because of hazardous environments. You need to remember not to get confused between calibrating and the tare option, when you zero out something you put on your scale you are not calibrating, that’s just so you can weight the actual product you want on top of a plate or a bowl without adding to the final number what the plate or bowl actually weighs.
Some scales don’t have a calibration method and you need to take them to a special place for this to be done or maybe in the manual of your scale, they tell you a way to manually calibrate yours. The thing is that over time scales have gotten so much better and accurate that you don’t need to calibrate them, that was when we used old mechanical balances instead of digital ones. Still, if you think that your scale is not giving you a correct measure you need to talk to a specialist or return to the place you bought it and ask what’s wrong, most of them have a warranty and they will help you right away. Don’t try to open them and start picking on buttons or cables because that might ruin yours or even lose its warranty.
Alexis DeAnda is a food fanatic, library card user, and cast iron hunter, in that order. She has been cooking for anyone that will taste it ever since her mom let her make doughnuts on Saturday mornings at the age of 7.