I have a Hanna meter that I bought on ebay. It works fine. I'm now on my 2nd one. The first one lasted about 5 years. See Link.
John A

Here is a link that might be useful: pH Meter - Ebay

They look good, John.
If you can calibrate them, then it is a serious thing. And the prices are good too ; under $50.

Thanks. I have a leaf luster rapitest soil ph meter but I don't know if it would be ok for food. The thing is a little squirrelly anyway and "auto calibrates".

You need a pH meter that is accurate to 2 decimal places if food pH is over 4.0. Below 4.0 you can use a meter good to 1 decimal place or litmus paper.

For food over 4.0 pH, you should be able to calibrate the meter with both 7.0 and 4.0 solutions. Temperature-compensation capability is also desirable but these are not inexpensive meters.

I've linked an article from WISU about pH meters, but note that the Hanna meter referenced had accuracy of 0.2 not 0.02 when I went to the Edmunds Scientific website. I emailed the author of the article a few years ago about the typo and never heard back.

Here is a link that might be useful: WI State article about pH meters

but note that the Hanna meter referenced had accuracy of 0.2 not 0.02
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In the WI review shows Hanna with accuracy of +/- 0.02

........................
Notes:

Requires a tiny screwdriver
for calibration (not
included)
Inexpensive and easy to use
Accuracy + 0.02 pH ( sb +/- 0.02)
No temperature compensation
Battery powered

That's what I was saying - WISU article says Hanna accuracy is 0.02 but if you look at Edmund Scientific (price has gone up $10 in past few years) the accuracy is really only 0.2.

I think Hanna made a typo error.
A +/- 0.2 pH accuracy is way too much. For example: If it measure 4.0 but in reality it may be 3.8 or 4.2. That makes the instrument a trash.
EXAMPLE:
5% acidity vinegar has a pH =2.42
Diluted to half strength (2.5%) will have pH = 2.56

The difference on pH scale is 0.14 That is even smaller than 0.2. So if in fact a lab pH mater cannot even tell the difference with so much acidity difference, it is practically worthless.

No, I think WISU made the typo. For that price difference compared to the others, I'm betting on the 0.2 accuracy.

You're right, it's kind of useless except as they say a "checker" for kids to experiment with in science class, though if a food lab found pH of your product to be 4.0 or under you could then use the "checker" for subsequent batches, b/c you'd know it would be 4.2 or under. If that meter ever gave you a 4.4 or higher for that product though I think I'd refrigerate that batch - something may have been overripe (higher pH), or you did something different that time.