Why ground meat has its own rule: 160 °F (71.1 °C), no exceptions for pink centres

A steak can be seared on the outside and rare in the middle; a burger cannot. The official US numbers make the distinction explicit: whole cuts of beef, pork, veal and lamb need 145 °F (62.8 °C) plus a 3-minute rest, but the moment those meats are ground, the rule jumps to 160 °F (71.1 °C) with no rest — and ground poultry goes higher still, 165 °F (73.9 °C). Here is why grinding changes everything.

Surface bacteria, moved to the middle

On a whole cut of raw meat, contamination from processing is overwhelmingly a surface phenomenon. Searing a steak's exterior pastes that surface with heat far above any safety threshold, which is why the US allows a pink centre at 145 °F (62.8 °C) with rest. Grinding reverses the geometry: every strand of meat that touched the exterior — and anything on the grinder, the cutter's hands or the processing line — gets folded through the entire batch. The centre of a raw patty is now exactly as exposed as its surface, so the centre must reach the same kill temperature as a surface sear would deliver. That is the entire logic of 160 °F (71.1 °C), and it's why the UK Food Standards Agency puts burgers, sausages and kebabs in its "must be cooked all the way through" category, alongside minced meat of any type.

The exact official numbers

Note Health Canada's frozen raw breaded chicken line — a category Canada calls out explicitly after illness outbreaks; those products look precooked but are raw and must reach 74 °C (165 °F). Any of these values is one click away in the doneness lookup tool, and the whole table lives in the master chart.

Why you can't watch a burger for doneness

FSIS maintains a page titled "Color of Cooked Ground Beef as It Relates to Doneness" for one reason: the brown-colour heuristic fails in both directions. Myoglobin chemistry lets ground beef turn brown well below 160 °F (71.1 °C) — especially after partial cooking and re-heating — and it can stay pink at fully safe temperatures. The agency's conclusion is unambiguous: only a food thermometer verifies a burger. Probe from the side into the centre of the patty; for meatballs and meatloaf, check the geometric centre of the thickest piece. If you own a thermometer and doubt it, the two-minute ice-point calibration check settles the question.

Steak tartare and restaurant rare burgers

Home cooks sometimes ask why restaurants can serve rare burgers when the chart says 160 °F (71.1 °C). The honest answer: commercial rare-burger programs rely on sourcing, handling controls and sometimes surface-pasteurization of whole primals before grinding — controls that do not exist in a home kitchen, and separate from the consumer guidance republished here. UK FSA guidance for home cooks is the bluntest: burgers shouldn't be served rare or pink at home. The sous-vide pasteurization article explains the time–temperature math commercial kitchens use.

Rest time: why ground meat gets none

The 3-minute rest attached to 145 °F (62.8 °C) whole cuts does not apply to ground meat, and the reason is consistency: 160 °F (71.1 °C) is an immediate-kill temperature, like poultry's 165 °F (73.9 °C), so no hold time is needed. The rest-based guidance exists so whole cuts can be cooked lower and stay juicier — the mechanism is explained in rest time science.

Related reading

• The complete safe internal temperature chart
• What temp is chicken done? 165 °F (73.9 °C)
• Leftover rules: 2-hour cooling, 3–4 day fridge window
• How long ground meat keeps in the fridge and freezer

Sources verified: 2026-11-16. USDA FSIS Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart · FoodSafety.gov chart · Health Canada · UK FSA. Official numbers only — never rounded.