Safe Internal Cooking Temperatures for Meat, Poultry, Fish and Eggs

What are the USDA safe minimum internal temperatures?

The USDA safe minimum internal temperature chart is the reference most American food safety advice is built on. Every number on it is a minimum, read with a food thermometer in the thickest part of the food. Where a rest time is listed, the meat has to stay off the heat for that long before it's carved or eaten.

Celsius figures are rounded. The rest time isn't only about juicier meat. During those minutes the temperature holds steady or keeps climbing, and that time at heat is part of what makes a whole cut safe at its minimum.

Why does ground meat need a higher temperature than steak?

Bacteria on a whole steak or chop live mostly on the outside. The inside of an intact muscle is close to sterile, so searing the surface does much of the work, and the center temperature adds a margin on top. Grinding changes that. Whatever was on the surface gets mixed all the way through, so a burger has to be safe in the very middle, and the USDA sets that bar at 160°F.

Poultry carries the highest number because raw chicken and turkey are linked to Salmonella and Campylobacter, and at 165°F those bacteria die almost instantly rather than over several minutes.

Color is a poor stand-in for any of these numbers. Ground beef can turn brown inside before it's safe, and chicken near the bone can stay pink after it's fully cooked. A thermometer settles it.

Safe isn't the same as best, though. Chicken breast is juiciest right at its minimum, while thighs and drumsticks have more connective tissue and taste better at 170°F to 175°F, which is why a lemon herb roast chicken gets checked in two places. Lamb runs the other way: grilled lamb chops with chimichurri are still rosy after their rest and turn gray and firm past 155°F.

How to use an instant-read thermometer correctly

A thermometer only helps if it's accurate and in the right spot. These habits cover nearly every situation:

1. Check calibration first. Fill a glass with crushed ice, top it up with cold water and stir. After a minute the probe should read 32°F (0°C) without touching the glass. If it doesn't, adjust it or remember the difference.
2. Aim for the thickest part. Keep the tip away from bone, fat and gristle, which read differently from the meat around them.
3. Go in from the side on thin cuts. For chops, burgers, chicken breasts and fish fillets, slide the probe in horizontally so the tip sits in the center instead of poking through to the pan.
4. Check a whole bird in two places. Use the thickest part of the breast and the innermost part of the thigh, and both need to reach the poultry minimum.
5. Wait for the number to settle. Most digital models read in a few seconds. Dial thermometers are slower and need to go about 2 inches deep.
6. Test more than once. Large roasts and casseroles heat unevenly, so check two or three spots and go by the lowest reading.
7. Clean the probe. Wash it in hot, soapy water between a raw reading and a cooked one.

A leave-in probe with a cable is handy for roasts, since you can watch the number climb without opening the oven door. Pop-up timers in turkeys aren't a substitute; confirm with a real reading in the thigh and breast.

What is carryover cooking, and when should you pull meat?

Food keeps cooking after it leaves the heat. The outer layers are hotter than the center, and that heat keeps moving inward while the meat rests. How far the center climbs depends on size, shape and how hot the oven or pan was.

• Large roasts and whole birds can rise 5°F to 10°F, sometimes more after a very hot oven.
• Steaks, chops and thick fillets usually rise 3°F to 5°F.
• Thin fillets, shrimp and scallops barely rise at all, so cook them to the number you want.

Cooks use carryover to avoid overcooking. Thick salmon fillets come off the heat at about 140°F, and honey soy glazed salmon reaches 145°F as it sits on the platter. A big roast can leave the oven several degrees short and finish under loose foil.

If you pull food early, check it again after the rest. The safe minimum is the temperature the food actually reaches, not the one you expect it to reach, and if the number stalls short it goes back in for a few minutes. Resting also gives the juices time to settle, so a roast chicken carved after 15 minutes loses far less liquid onto the board than one carved straight from the oven.

Doneness vs safety: is medium rare steak safe?

Cooks and food safety agencies use two different scales. The USDA scale is about killing bacteria. The doneness scale chefs use for beef is about texture and color, and its lower steps fall below the 145°F minimum. Ranges vary a little from one source to the next, but this is typical, measured after resting:

• Rare: 120°F to 125°F, red and cool in the center
• Medium rare: 130°F to 135°F, warm red center
• Medium: 140°F to 145°F, pink center
• Medium well: 150°F to 155°F, a trace of pink
• Well done: 160°F and above, no pink

The USDA doesn't endorse anything under its minimums. Many people still choose rare or medium rare for intact steaks and chops, reasoning that a hard sear kills the bacteria on the outside, where they mostly live (searing without sticking covers how to get that crust). That reasoning doesn't carry over to ground beef, to mechanically tenderized steaks, where the surface has been pushed inward, or to poultry.

It also depends on who's eating. The FDA advises people at higher risk, including older adults and people with cancer, diabetes or a weakened immune system, to avoid undercooked meat, poultry and seafood. Pork is the easy case: since its minimum dropped to 145°F, a faint blush of pink in a chop is expected and fine.

Eggs, egg dishes and leftovers: which temperatures apply?

Eggs are the one food the USDA often describes by sight. The USDA shell egg guidance says to cook eggs until the yolk and white are firm, and to cook dishes containing eggs to 160°F. That covers quiche, frittata, bread pudding and baked custards. In a shakshuka with feta, firm yolks take about 10 to 12 minutes under the lid instead of 5 to 8. For runny yolks, as in eggs Benedict with hollandaise, the USDA suggests pasteurized eggs, which matters most for anyone in a higher risk group.

Leftovers have their own number. The USDA leftovers guidance says to reheat them to 165°F and to bring sauces, soups and gravies to a rolling boil. A stew like beef bourguignon reheats well, covered, over medium low heat until it's bubbling all the way through.

Microwaves heat unevenly. Cover the dish, stir or rotate it halfway, let it stand for a minute or two, then check the center and the thickest pieces. Casseroles straight from the fridge take longer than you'd guess in the middle. How long cooked food keeps before you reheat it is a separate question, answered in how long leftovers last.