Whether you’re meal prepping, dieting, baking, bodybuilding, or trying to create the perfect cup of coffee, a food scale is an essential tool in any kitchen. We’ve researched the best food scales for meal prep so that you can choose the best scale to fit your lifestyle and level up your kitchen precision.
To get you started, here is our #1 all-around choice for the best food scale for meal prep:
Check out our #1 pick on Amazon!
There are tons of great reasons to invest in a food scale for your kitchen:
Portion Control
This is an essential component of meal prepping for a diet. Many fresh foods don’t come in prepackaged or pre-weighed amounts, so knowing exactly what you’re putting into a recipe is difficult without a food scale at home. By taking control of your portion sizes you can accurately calculate your caloric intake, which is important for dieting and meal prepping.
Also essential for meal prep is the ability to make equal portions. By weighing your food you can know exactly how much to pile up in your meal prep containers. Or, if you’re like me and make large batch recipes to portion out each morning, you’ll be able to know exactly how much to portion each day so you don’t run out of food at the end of the week!
In a day in age where portion sizes are ballooning way out of proportion, you can take back control of your food with a kitchen scale. Knowing exactly what you put into your body will make life and dieting that much easier.
Precision
Using measuring cups is useful, quick, and common – but nothing beats the precision of weighing your ingredients. This is especially true in baking, where weighing dry ingredients is the preferred method of professional bakers.
But why is weighing better? The simple answer is: compression. One cup of a solid ingredient (that should be 8oz, ideally) might not always weigh 8oz when you put it on the scale. This is because solid ingredients can be packed or compressed into a measuring cup. Sifted flour will weigh significantly less than packed flour, even though it’s the same volume of flour! While their relative volume can differ, the mass of ingredient that you’re using should always be the same, so weighing is the way to go.
Reproducibility
If you increase your precision in your cooking, reproducibility is sure to follow. By measuring ingredients carefully (especially things that don’t fit easily in a measuring cup), you can ensure that your perfected recipes taste great every time. While some things can be left to taste (like seasoning!), reproducible measuring in the kitchen will ensure that your meals are consistently delicious.
On top of that, you’ll likely have better luck reproducing any recipes you get from friends or online resources.
Weight Conversions
This one’s pretty straightforward: food scales are great tools for converting between different weight measurements – grams to oz and vice versa.
Next let’s get into our reviews for several categories of food scale. First off, our favorite all around!
Best All-Around Food Scale
AccuWeight Digital Kitchen Food Scale
This food scale has all the features that you need to get started today!
- Electronic gram scale equipped with 4 high precision sensors to give you accurate weight all the time; Weight capacity from 5g to 5000g ( 11lbs / 5000mL / 176 fl. Oz). Accurate to within 1 g/0.1 oz.
- Our digital meat scale tempered glass platform, is not only safe and hygienic but also easy to clean and store.
- User-Friendly: Zero/Tare function of the food scale allows you to zero out containers when weighing multiple ingredients, quick unit conversion.
This is our top overall pick for the best food scale for meal prep and it is a great way to get started with tracking your food intake. This scale has all the features that we look for in a simple kitchen scale, and it won’t break the bank. The tempered glass weighing platform is a sturdy, easy-to-clean weighing surface that also keeps your weighing vessels out of the way of the measuring screen. The screen is the other great feature of this scale: big numbers, bright backlight, multiple weighing functions, and an auto-shutoff feature make this an ideal measuring device.
Features:
- Tempered glass weighing platform
- Large numeric display
- Backlit display
- Auto-shutoff
- 1 year warranty
Best Food Scale for Detailed Measurements
Greater Goods Nourish Digital Kitchen Scale with Nutritional Facts Display
This food scale instantly calculates all macros for pre-programmed foods!
- ACCURATE MEASUREMENTS: Four precision weighing sensors ensure accuracy within .1 oz/1 gm.
- NUTRITION FACTS: Get nutritional data for up to 2000 foods, including custom entries. TRACK MACROS.
- EASY TO CLEAN: Smooth surface and hygienic touch-sensitive buttons. DURABLE: Tempered glass top.
This scale is a great option for anyone who is carefully tracking their macros or wants to avoid calculating them separately. This innovative kitchen scale features a digital display that shows the major macronutrients contained in your food the second that you weigh it. It comes loaded with over 2000 pre-programmed foods to choose from, and you can even add up to 99 custom nutrition fact sheets as well. Each food has a corresponding code that is easy to look up on the app that accompanies this food scale. The built-in nutrition facts calculator is super helpful for tracking net carbs, which is essential on a keto diet.
This scale is a great option for anyone who is carefully tracking their macros or wants to avoid calculating them separately. This innovative kitchen scale features a digital display that shows the major macronutrients contained in your food the second that you weigh it. It comes loaded with over 2000 pre-programmed foods to choose from, and you can even add up to 99 custom nutrition fact sheets as well. Each food has a corresponding code that is easy to look up on the app that accompanies this food scale. The built-in nutrition facts calculator is super helpful for tracking net carbs, which is essential on a keto diet.
Features:
- Accurate within 0.1oz/1g
- Nutritional facts for over 2000 foods
- App support to look up foods nutrition info
- Ability to enter custom nutrition facts
- Auto shut-off
- Calculates macros instantly
- A fraction of purchase proceeds are donated to charity
- 11lb maximum capacity
Drawbacks:
- No backlight
- Some of the pre-loaded food items are junk food
- Limited space (99 slots) for custom foods
Niftiest Food Scale
Gourmia Bamboo Cutting Board and Digital Scale
All-in-one bamboo scale and cutting board is perfect for minimal storage and on-the-go measuring for meal prep!
- BAMBOO CUTTING BOARD – Premium Wood Server Provides Ample Space for Chopping, Slicing & Displaying Food; Side Drawer Holds Digital Scale
- REMOVEABLE KITCHEN SCALE – Matching Bamboo Electronic Scale Delivers Precise Readings in 2 Units [Grams or Ounces] Up to 5kg Capacity [11lbs.]
- EASY OPERATION – Extra Large LCD Display Runs on Lithium Battery & Features One Touch Commands; Auto Shutoff, Overload & Low Battery Indicators
Worried that your food scale will go unused in the kitchen? Then try out this nifty dual-function scale and cutting board all in one. This kitchen scale comes in a unique bamboo finish and tucks away under an accompanying bamboo cutting board. This board is great for chopping up vegetables for meal preps or stylishly displaying charcuterie for a weeknight dinner party. Best of all, it’s pretty easy on the wallet for a great combo deal.
Features:
- 11lb load capacity
- Includes bamboo cutting board and
food scale - Sleek design hides scale in a
side drawer - Convenient to store all in one
- Auto-shutoff, overload, and low battery indicators
Drawbacks:
- Some users have complained that cleaning is tricky
- No physical buttons, only touch-sensitive
Best Analog Food Scale
Taylor Stainless Steel Analog Kitchen Scale
Classic and stylish – and no batteries required! Add some beauty to your kitchen with this stainless steel scale
- Quality and precision: Taylor has been making precision products for kitchen measurement for over 150 years, Using on the highest quality components for accurate weights. Measure in pounds, ounces, kilogram, or grams up to 11 lbs (5 kilogram) with 1-ounce and 50-gram increments.
- Easy to read dial: The red and black graphics are easy to read on the large 5 inch dial.
- Classic design: polished stainless steel finish looks sophisticated, while the traditional design blends into any kitchen décor.
Go the old school route and add some class to your kitchen setup with a classic analog kitchen scale. You’ll never need to replace the batteries on this gorgeous stainless steel appliance (and it’ll serve you well in any power-less zombie apocalypse scenarios!). Perfect for quickly eyeballing your produce and more for quick meal preps.
Features:
- Completely analog – no batteries or power required
- Stainless steel finish
- 11lb load capacity
- Manual calibration knob
- Dishwasher safe
Drawbacks:
- A bit less accurate than electronic scales (1oz precision)
Best Scale for Coffee Brewing
One of the most accurate food scales on the market. Truly maximum precision.
- Master the art of coffee brewing with Acaia －the only scale designed for coffee enthusiasts that monitors the weight, time and flow-rates as you brew coffee.
- This simple, modern and minimalistic scale is designed with brilliant functionality in mind, compatible with the Acaia iPhone & Android app, offers you the endless possibility to explore the exquisite world of coffee.
- The ALL NEW Acaia Pearl Model S is a professional-grade smart scale that brings consistency and insight to your coffee brewing.
This is the king of all food scales, with hypersensitivity and Bluetooth mobile app support. Is this really the perfect scale for meal prep? Admittedly, it is overkill if you’re just throwing together some meals for the week. But if you’re a precision geek like me, or if you’re on the quest for the perfect cup of coffee, then this is the product for you.
Features:
- Sensitivity up to 0.1g (you can detect evaporation!)
- Bluetooth connectivity
- Phone app support
That wraps up our review of the best food scales for meal prep so far in 2019!
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