Minimum Internal Cooking Temperature for Ground Beef (and Other Meats)

The minimum internal cooking temperature for ground beef in a restaurant is 155°F held for 17 seconds. That is the FDA Food Code number most health departments enforce. If you have read 160°F, that is the USDA number for home cooks, which builds in a little more margin because home kitchens rarely check hold times. Both are safe when you hit them; the important part is hitting them in the center of the thickest patty, every batch.

Ground beef gets a higher number than a steak because grinding moves surface bacteria, including E. coli O157:H7, into the middle of the meat. A steak's inside is close to sterile, so searing the outside works. A burger's inside is not.

The limits come from section 3-401.11 of the FDA Food Code 2022, and the consumer numbers from the USDA safe minimum internal temperature chart.

Minimum internal cooking temperature for ground beef and other foods

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Ground beef time and temperature options

The Food Code lets you trade time for temperature. For ground beef and other comminuted meats, any of these is equivalent:

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In practice most kitchens target 158°F to 160°F on the thermometer so they do not have to time a hold, which also matches the USDA number. Sous vide burgers use the longer, lower combinations, which is a specialized process covered in the sous vide HACCP plan guide.

What temperature must ground duck be cooked to?

Ground duck must be cooked to 165°F. The difference is the same as beef: whole muscle is intact inside, while ground meat spreads surface bacteria through the mix. Ground duck is also poultry, which carries Salmonella and Campylobacter. The Food Code treats all poultry, whole or ground, at 165°F.

A seared duck breast served medium can be offered with a consumer advisory, the same way a rare steak can. Ground duck in burgers, sausages or dumplings should reach 165°F.

How to check a burger properly

• Use a thin-tip digital probe; dial thermometers are too thick for patties.
• Insert the probe from the side into the center of the patty, not from the top.
• Check the thickest patty in each batch, and at least one patty from each side of the grill.
• Wait for the reading to settle, which takes 2 to 5 seconds on a good digital probe.
• Clean and sanitize the probe between raw and cooked checks.
• Calibrate daily or weekly; see how to calibrate a thermometer.

Color is not a test. Ground beef can turn brown before it is safe, especially if it was frozen, and some burgers stay pink at 160°F because of pH and myoglobin chemistry.

Hazards in meat and poultry

Biological hazards

The main ones are bacteria that raw meat and poultry commonly carry:

• Salmonella in poultry, eggs and some meats.
• Campylobacter in poultry.
• Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (such as O157:H7) in ground beef and some intact beef cuts that are tenderized or injected.
• Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat meats and deli products.
• Clostridium perfringens in large batches of cooked meat and gravy that cool slowly.

Chemical hazards

Allergens in marinades and coatings, cleaning chemicals, and curing agents such as sodium nitrite if you cure meat.

Physical hazards

Bone fragments, metal from grinders or slicers, and broken thermometers.

Undercooked burgers and steaks

Many restaurants serve burgers medium rare on request. The Food Code allows raw or undercooked animal foods to be served on consumer request with a consumer advisory (3-603.11), except to highly susceptible populations such as hospitals and nursing homes. The advisory has a disclosure (identifying the items) and a reminder (that eating raw or undercooked foods may increase the risk of foodborne illness). Your health department may have specific wording. Make sure the menu and any delivery app listings show it.

Intact whole-muscle steaks are different from ground or tenderized meat, because pathogens are mostly on the surface. Mechanically tenderized and injected meats carry surface bacteria into the center, which is why the Food Code treats them like ground meat.

Preventing cross-contamination

Cross-contamination from raw meat and poultry to ready-to-eat food is one of the main ways meat causes illness, even when the meat itself is cooked properly. Prerequisite programs should cover:

• Storage order: in the refrigerator, store raw meat and poultry below ready-to-eat food, with poultry on the bottom because it has the highest cooking temperature.
• Separate cutting boards and knives, color coded if you can.
• Handwashing after handling raw meat and before touching anything else.
• Cleaning and sanitizing surfaces after raw meat prep.
• Gloves changed between raw and ready-to-eat tasks.

See our sanitation SOP post for cleaning steps.

Butcher counters and in-house grinding

If you grind meat in house, cut steaks, or make sausages, more steps enter the plan:

• Grinding logs. Some jurisdictions and buyers expect a grinding log that records source lots, date and time of each grind, and cleaning of the grinder between sources. This helps trace a problem back to the source if a recall happens.
• Grinder cleaning. Grinders are hard to clean and can carry bacteria between batches. Write a detailed cleaning procedure.
• Temperature during cutting. Keep meat cold during processing. Work in small batches and return product to the cooler.
• Sausage making. Fresh sausages are TCS foods. Cured or fermented sausages are a special process needing a HACCP plan and often a variance. See cured and smoked foods.

If you sell packaged ground meat or sausages wholesale to other businesses, you may cross into FSIS or state inspection territory. Ask before you start.

Receiving meat and poultry

Check every delivery of raw meat and poultry before it goes into the cooler. Probe between packages or into a sacrificial piece for product temperature, which should be 41°F or below under Food Code 3-202.11. Look for torn packaging, leaking cases, and signs of thawing and refreezing on frozen product. Reject anything that fails and write it on the receiving log. Our receiving temperature log post has a layout you can print.

Where FSIS and Food Code numbers differ

People are often surprised that the numbers are not the same everywhere:

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The Food Code uses time at temperature because restaurants can measure and control it. Consumer guidance uses simpler numbers with built-in margin. Both are based on killing pathogens; they just serve different audiences. In your restaurant plan, use the Food Code numbers your health department enforces.

Corrective actions

• Cooking temperature not met: continue cooking until it is. Recheck.
• Raw meat received above 41°F: reject the delivery and note it.
• Cooling stage 1 missed: reheat to 165°F and restart cooling, or discard.
• Cooling stage 2 missed: discard.
• Cold holding above 41°F for unknown time: discard.
• Cross-contamination observed (raw chicken juice on salad greens, for example): discard the affected food, clean and sanitize, retrain.

More in HACCP corrective actions examples.

The key CCPs for meat and poultry in a restaurant

Cooking

Cooking is the main kill step. The Food Code limits in 3-401.11:

• Poultry, stuffed meats and stuffing containing meat: 165°F for less than 1 second.
• Comminuted (ground) meats, injected meats and mechanically tenderized meats: 155°F for 17 seconds. The Food Code also lists equivalent time and temperature combinations.
• Whole-muscle intact beef, pork, lamb, fish, and eggs for immediate service: 145°F for 15 seconds.
• Whole-muscle intact beef steaks may be served undercooked if the surface is cooked to 145°F and the steak is a whole intact cut, with a consumer advisory where required.
• Roasts have their own time and temperature table in the Food Code.

USDA FSIS publishes a safe minimum temperature chart for consumers that uses 160°F for ground meat and 145°F plus a 3-minute rest for whole cuts. Restaurants follow the code their health department enforces, which is usually the Food Code numbers. If customers or staff ask why the numbers differ, that is the reason.

Monitor by probing the thickest part of the food with a calibrated thermometer. For burgers, probe a patty from each grill load. For chicken, probe the thickest piece. Record the lowest reading.

Cooling

Cooked meats cooled for later use (roasts, braised meats, taco meat, gravies, stocks) are a classic cause of C. perfringens outbreaks. The Food Code (3-501.14) requires:

• 135°F to 70°F within 2 hours.
• 70°F to 41°F within the next 4 hours, for 6 hours total.

Cut large roasts into pieces, spread ground meat in shallow pans, and use ice baths for sauces and gravies. See our food cooling rules post and print a cooling log.

Reheating

Cooked and cooled meats reheated for hot holding must reach 165°F for 15 seconds within 2 hours (3-403.11). See reheating food to 165°F.

Hot and cold holding

Hot holding at 135°F or above. Cold holding at 41°F or below (3-501.16). Check and log at a set frequency. See cold holding vs hot holding temperatures.

Hazard analysis example: burgers

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Write the reasoning in a sentence for each. More in our hazard analysis examples.

Flow diagram for a restaurant chicken dish

For braised or roasted meats that are cooked ahead, add cool, cold store and reheat steps with their own CCPs.

Vacuum packing and sous vide meats

Vacuum packing raw or cooked meat is reduced oxygen packaging under Food Code 3-502.12. That section allows some ROP without a variance if you meet its conditions and have a HACCP plan, and requires a variance for others. Cooking meat sous vide is covered by the same section. Our sous vide HACCP plan and reduced oxygen packaging HACCP plan pages explain the details.

Records for meat and poultry

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Download printable forms from free logs.

Verification

• Weekly manager review of all logs.
• Calibration of thermometers. See thermometer calibration log.
• Observe cooks probing food during service and compare to the log.
• Review the plan when you change suppliers, add a new cut or product, or change equipment.
• Review after any illness complaint.

HACCP verification and record keeping has a simple schedule.

Common products and where they go wrong

Rotisserie chicken

Rotisserie birds are cooked whole, held hot for hours and often chilled and sold cold the next day. Cooking is the first CCP: probe the thickest part of the thigh and breast of several birds per load. Hot holding is the second: check product temperature, not the display setting, every 2 hours or as your plan sets. If unsold birds are cooled for later sale, cooling becomes a third CCP, and whole birds cool slowly. Many operators pull the meat or quarter the birds before cooling.

Barbecue: brisket and pulled pork

Low and slow cooking can make it hard to know when the meat has passed the cooking limit, and very large cuts take a long time to cool. Probe the thickest part at the end of the cook. For leftovers, slice or pull the meat and spread it in shallow pans before cooling. Reheat to 165°F within 2 hours for hot holding. If you smoke meat for flavor and then cook it fully, that is cooking. If you smoke for preservation, that is a special process. Our cured and smoked foods post explains the line.

Chicken wings

Wings are small and cook fast, but fryer loads vary in size and frozen wings dropped into oil can come out undercooked at the joint. Probe several wings from each load at the thickest part, not the tip. If wings are par-cooked and finished later, the par-cook step needs its own procedure. The Food Code has specific conditions for non-continuous cooking (3-401.14), and many health departments want those written procedures before you use the method.

Taco and chili meat

Ground meat cooked in large batches and held for service. Cook to 155°F, hold at 135°F or above, and cool any leftover in shallow pans. Chili and taco meat are classic C. perfringens foods when cooled in deep pots.

A sample CCP summary for meat and poultry

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Training cooks on meat and poultry

Most failures come from a cook trusting color, time or feel instead of a thermometer. Train each cook to probe properly: thickest part, away from bone, and long enough for the reading to settle. Show them how to calibrate in ice water and when to do it. Make sure they know the three main cooking numbers by heart (165, 155, 145) and where the chart is posted. Our HACCP training post has a simple sign-off format.

Put cooking temperatures into your plan

Cooking is the most common critical control point in a restaurant. The HACCP plan builder adds the right Food Code limit for each protein, a monitoring step and corrective actions, and prints a restaurant temperature log for the line. Start free with one process; the plan is a draft for your health department to review. For the science of why these numbers work, see what temperature kills bacteria.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum internal cooking temperature for ground beef?

155°F for 17 seconds under the FDA Food Code for restaurants. USDA consumer guidance is 160°F.

What temperature must ground duck be cooked to?

165°F. Ground duck is poultry, so it follows the poultry limit of 165°F for under 1 second.

Can a restaurant serve a medium-rare burger?

Yes in most states, if the menu carries a consumer advisory and the beef is not served to a highly susceptible population such as a nursing home. Some states and chains require more.

Where should I probe a burger?

Insert the probe from the side into the center of the thickest patty, and check more than one patty from each batch.