The Thermomix has become indispensable for many customers in the kitchen.

The food processor from Vorwerk is quick and easy to use, and the manufacturer Vorwerk promises that even complicated recipes should be child's play.

However, the device has dangerous pitfalls.

If you are not careful with the current Thermomix model TM6, you have to expect hot food to squirt out, which can have bad consequences.

Vorwerk therefore published a "precautionary application warning" on Tuesday and sent it to its customers.

Helmut Buender

Business correspondent in Düsseldorf.

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Previously, some users had raised the alarm with the manufacturer because their expensive kitchen helper - the latest model costs around 1400 euros - was causing difficulties.

Usually, when cooking and simmering, a tightly fitting measuring cup is used, which allows sufficient steam to escape from the mixing bowl at the edges.

With certain recipes, however, ingredients could float, condense and become impermeable to steam, Vorwerk explained.

For example, the boiled vegetables in a soup can block the passage openings.

As a result, “in extremely rare cases, increased pressure can build up in the mixing bowl”.

Then there is a risk of the food being cooked “suddenly and uncontrolled escaping, which could lead to scalding in individual cases,” warns Vorwerk.

This risk increases if users put more in the pot than recommended.

"It's just an extra touch"

According to Vorwerk, the remedy is actually quite simple: when cooking with temperatures above 95 degrees, customers should not use the fixed measuring cup, but the cooking insert, which is part of the standard equipment of the TM6.

"It's just an extra touch," said a spokesman.

This cooking basket sits loosely, is vapor permeable and at the same time prevents food from splashing out of the pot.

Vorwerk speaks of a “simple but necessary measure”.

Vorwerk did not want to say exactly how many customers have already reported this problem.

It's about "few cases".

A spokesman emphasized that Vorwerk had not issued a "product warning" but only a voluntary warning to rule out improper use.

The procedure was coordinated with the responsible supervisory authority, the product safety department of the Düsseldorf district government.

So far, Vorwerk is not aware of any scalding that is “causally” due to the TM6 problem.

At least in Germany, nobody has made any claims for damages.

The spokesman could not say what it looks like in other countries.

For Vorwerk, the Thermomix is ​​by far the most important product: at 1.7 billion euros, it recently accounted for around half of total sales.

Vorwerk has sold more than 8 million units of the newer generations.