Safe Cooking Temperatures

Cooking food to a safe internal temperature is the single most reliable way to prevent foodborne illness. Harmful bacteria such as Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, and Campylobacter are destroyed when food reaches specific temperatures for sufficient time. This guide provides the authoritative internal temperature targets for all common foods.

How to Use the Safe Cooking Temperatures Guide

1. Select the food type from the list (beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, or leftovers).
2. Note the minimum safe internal temperature for that food.
3. Cook the food until a probe thermometer inserted into the thickest part (away from bones, fat, or gristle) reads at or above the target temperature.
4. Allow the food to rest for the specified time at that temperature before serving or carving.
5. Refrigerate or freeze leftovers promptly after serving.

The Formula

The reference standard for safe cooking temperatures comes from food safety agencies including the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).

The key principle is that pathogen destruction is a function of both temperature and time: a higher temperature for a shorter time achieves the same safety outcome as a lower temperature held for longer. This is expressed as thermal death curves. In practice, home cooking targets are set conservatively at a single temperature that achieves instant or near-instant pathogen destruction without requiring you to monitor holding time. These targets represent the minimum safe temperature, not an optimal serving temperature, which may be higher.

Real-World Example

You are roasting a whole chicken. Insert the probe into the thickest part of the thigh, ensuring it does not touch the bone (bone heats faster than meat and will give a falsely high reading).

Safe minimum internal temperature = 75C (165F).

At 75C, Campylobacter (the most common cause of food poisoning in the UK) is destroyed in seconds. Salmonella is also reliably killed at this temperature. If the thermometer reads 70C, continue cooking and retest every 5 minutes. Do not rely on the juices running clear as a safety indicator; juices can run clear before the meat has reached a safe temperature.

Safe Internal Temperature Reference Table

Note: minced meat, burgers, and sausages must always be cooked through as surface bacteria are mixed throughout during processing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it safe to eat rare or pink beef burgers? No. Mincing meat spreads surface bacteria throughout the meat. A rare burger that is pink in the middle has not reached a temperature sufficient to kill bacteria present throughout the patty. Whole muscle beef steaks can be served rare because bacteria exist only on the surface, which reaches safe temperatures when seared. Burgers must always be cooked until there is no pink remaining and juices run clear, with an internal temperature of at least 74C.

Why is the safe temperature for pork higher than for beef? Pork traditionally required higher cooking temperatures due to Trichinella spiralis, a parasite found in undercooked pork. Modern farming practices have made trichinosis extremely rare in commercially farmed pork, and food safety agencies in the UK and US now permit pork to be served slightly pink at 63C with a rest period. However, pork mince, sausages, and stuffed pork products must still reach 74C throughout.

How do I know if my probe thermometer is accurate? Test it in ice water (should read 0C) and in boiling water at sea level (should read 100C). If readings are off by more than 1 to 2 degrees, recalibrate or replace the thermometer. Digital instant-read thermometers are generally more accurate than dial-type thermometers and give a reading in 2 to 5 seconds.

At what temperature should I store leftovers in the fridge? Refrigerators should be set to 5C or below. Cooked food should be cooled to room temperature (within 2 hours of cooking) and then refrigerated promptly. Do not place large volumes of hot food directly into the fridge, as this raises the internal temperature and can bring nearby foods into the danger zone. Leftovers should be consumed or frozen within 2 to 3 days.

Times and temperatures, not temperature alone

A single target temperature is a convenience. The underlying rule pairs a temperature with a holding time, and the two trade against each other. Cook poultry to a higher temperature and the pathogens die in seconds. Hold it at a lower temperature and the same reduction takes longer.

A worked model makes the trade visible. Set the reference at 70C held for 2 minutes, and set the rate of change so the required time falls by a factor of ten for every 10C rise. The assumption behind the model is a property called the z-value, which describes how quickly a given organism dies as heat rises. Published z-values are specific to each organism, and this page does not quote them. The table is an illustration you can reproduce, not a safety standard.

Two lessons follow. First, a reading 5C below target is not a near miss. Under this model it costs 3.16 times the holding time, because 5 divided by 10 is 0.5 and 10 to the power 0.5 is 3.16. Second, heat past the target buys nothing the food needs. At 80C the model allows 12 seconds, and the extra temperature only drives moisture out of the joint.

The practical consequence is that a probe reading decides whether you keep cooking. If a chicken thigh reads 70C rather than 75C, the meat is not automatically unsafe, but you have traded seconds of cooking for minutes of holding, and a home oven does not hold a temperature that precisely. The published tables exist so you do not have to make that call at the oven door.

Reading a probe at altitude

The ice-and-boiling calibration that most guides describe assumes sea level. Water boils cooler as you climb, and the gap is large enough to matter. A rule of thumb used in food service subtracts 1C from the boiling point for every 300 metres of elevation.

The direction of the error matters more than the size. A probe that reads 100C in water boiling at 94.2C reads about 5.8C high, so a joint sitting at 69C shows 74.8C on the display. That is the unsafe direction, and it is the reason the ice point is the calibration that travels. Ice water holds 0C at any elevation, because the melting point of ice barely moves with pressure. Use the ice point as the calibration and treat the boiling check as a rough second opinion.

Take the reading in the thickest part of the cut, and keep the tip clear of bone, fat and gristle. Bone conducts heat faster than muscle and returns a reading that flatters the meat around it.

What the cooking targets assume

The numbers in the reference table hold under a set of conditions. State them and you can see when a page like this one stops covering your dinner.

The probe sits in the thickest part of a single piece of even thickness, and the target temperature is reached through the joint rather than only at the probe. The piece is not stuffed, or the stuffing is cooked separately to its own target. The meat went into the oven cold but not spoiled, so the cold chain held beforehand. The thermometer is accurate to about 1C. Any leftovers are cooled within two hours, refrigerated at 5C or below, and reheated to 74C.

Four common kitchen situations sit outside the table. A rolled and stuffed joint needs the centre of the stuffing to reach 74C, which usually means the outer meat passes its own target first. A slow cooker holds meat in the 85C to 95C range for hours, so the safety comes from time rather than from a single reading. Sous vide cooking sets a bath to a precise temperature and holds it, which changes the whole calculation. A microwave reheats unevenly, so a single probe reading after a microwave tells you about one spot and nothing about the rest of the plate.

How the food agencies set a single temperature

Published guidance solves the time-and-temperature problem in two ways, and the difference explains most of the confusion about which number is right.

One convention sets a single figure per food that achieves a near-instant reduction at that temperature. A cook needs one probe reading and no stopwatch. The other convention names a lower temperature with a stated holding time. A cook needs to hold the food at that temperature for the stated minutes.

Both are safe when followed. They are not interchangeable, because a temperature taken from the second convention and used as though it came from the first leaves the food short of the target. The reference table on this page uses the single-figure convention throughout, and every figure in it is a minimum rather than a serving temperature. A rare whole cut of beef is served below its safety target on purpose, and that is a choice about eating quality rather than a gap in the table.

Also try these free tools:

• Cooking Time Calculator
• Recipe Scaler
• Nutrition Label Generator