Safe Internal Meat Temperatures: The USDA Chart Every Cook Should Know

The core USDA numbers, all in one place

The rows below come from the USDA FSIS Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart, and every other paragraph on this page stands on that one table. Cook food to these minimum internal temperatures, as measured with a food thermometer, before you take it off the heat source. You may cook higher for personal preference, but never lower. The chart is deliberately simple: one food, one row, one number, and the reading in the thickest part of the food decides whether that number has been reached. Keep a copy near the grill, or print it once and tape it inside a cabinet door, because the method only works when you check the right row at the right moment.

Why do the rows split the way they do? Whole cuts of beef, pork, veal, and lamb carry harmful bacteria mainly on the surface, where the heat destroys them, which is why 145 °F works with a short rest. Grinding spreads surface bacteria through the whole batch, so ground meat needs 160 °F. Poultry needs 165 °F because pathogens can be present inside the bird as well as on it, which is also why ground poultry shares that highest row. Once the reason behind each row is clear, the chart stops being a list of random numbers and turns into a rule you can carry to any cooker.

• Beef, pork, veal, and lamb steaks, chops, and roasts: 145 °F, then rest at least 3 minutes
• Ground meats, such as burgers and meatloaf: 160 °F
• All poultry, including whole birds, parts, and ground poultry: 165 °F
• Fish and shellfish: 145 °F
• Eggs: 160 °F

The rows the holidays add: ham, leftovers, casseroles

Two more rows matter around the holidays. Uncooked fresh or smoked ham needs 145 °F with the same at-least-3-minute rest as other whole cuts, because it is cooked from raw like a roast. A fully cooked ham is a different case and only needs reheating, but the chart gives two targets: 140 °F for hams packaged in USDA-inspected plants, and 165 °F for all others. The higher number exists because you cannot always know how a ham was handled after it left the plant, so the safest reading wins. Read the label before you choose a row, because a ham marked cook before eating is treated like any fresh whole cut.

Leftovers and casseroles both sit at 165 °F on the chart. Reheat until hot and steaming.

Rest time is part of the rule, not a suggestion

For steaks, chops, and roasts, the chart pairs 145 °F with a rest of at least 3 minutes, and the two belong together as a single requirement. During that rest the meat stays hot enough to finish the work the heat started, which is why pulling a steak at 145 °F and slicing it at once is not the same as pulling it at 145 °F and waiting. Carryover heat keeps the center climbing while the rest runs, and the minutes also give the juices time to settle back into the meat. The clock matters as much as the probe: if the temperature reads 145 °F and the timer has not run, the rule has not been met.

Ground meats at 160 °F and poultry at 165 °F carry no rest requirement. The reading at removal is the reading that counts.

Measure it right, or the numbers mean nothing

USDA's food thermometer guidance is specific because a reading from the wrong spot is not a reading at all. Put the probe into the thickest part of the food, away from bone, fat, and gristle, so the sensor sits in the slowest-warming area instead of a hot pocket. Check large or uneven cuts in several places and test each piece on its own, because two burgers on the same grate can finish minutes apart. For thin foods such as fish fillets, probe from the side so the sensor reaches the center, and hold the probe still until the number stops moving.

Trust the thermometer over appearance. Color and juices are not reliable signs of doneness. The number on the probe is the standard.

• Probe thin foods from the side so the sensor reaches the center
• Check big or uneven cuts in several spots, and test each piece on its own
• Verify accuracy with the ice-water test: an instant-read should register 32 °F

On a grill or smoker, then holding and reheating

Low-and-slow cooking makes the same rules sharper. USDA advises smoking only fully thawed meat, because a smoker's low heat cannot thaw safely and the meat would linger inside the 40–140 °F danger zone while it tried. The agency also calls for two thermometers: one on the cooker air, kept in the 225–300 °F range, and one in the food itself. A large cut's surface can read done while its center is still unsafe, so the numbers are internal temperatures, never clock times. If you smoke often, log the cooker temperature, the internal temperature, and the time each hour, so a stall or a slow climb shows up while you can still act on it.

After cooking, the danger zone frames everything else. Bacteria multiply fastest between 40 °F and 140 °F, so hot food should stay at 140 °F or warmer until serving. Never leave perishable food out for more than 2 hours, or 1 hour when the air is above 90 °F, and refrigerate leftovers in shallow containers within that window. The same window applies on a hot patio and in an air-conditioned kitchen, and if a dish sat out past the limit, the safe move is to throw it out.

Reheat leftovers thoroughly to 165 °F, the same target the chart gives poultry, because food that was safe when cooked can pick up bacteria again during handling and storage. Use poultry leftovers within 3 to 4 days or freeze them, and label containers with the date you put them in. When reheating sauces, soups, and gravies, bring them to a rolling boil. Every number on this page comes from USDA FSIS pages anchored by the Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart; if anything here ever differs from those official pages, trust the USDA page.