Pick a meat or food type below to see USDA's safe minimum internal temperature. For whole cuts of beef, pork, veal and lamb, we also show common chef doneness preferences separately — so you always know which number is a food-safety rule and which is a taste choice.
| Food | Safe minimum temp | Rest time |
|---|---|---|
| Poultry — whole bird, pieces, ground, stuffed | 165°F (74°C) | None |
| Ground meat — beef, pork, veal, lamb | 160°F (71°C) | None |
| Whole cuts — beef, pork, veal, lamb (steaks, roasts, chops) | 145°F (63°C) | 3 minutes |
| Fish & seafood | 145°F (63°C) or until opaque and flakes easily | None |
| Fresh (raw) ham | 145°F (63°C) | 3 minutes |
| Cooked ham, reheating | 140°F (60°C) | None |
| Leftovers & casseroles | 165°F (74°C) | None |
| Doneness | Approx. internal temp | vs. USDA 145°F minimum |
|---|---|---|
| Rare | 120–125°F (49–52°C) | Below USDA minimum — accepted risk |
| Medium-rare | 130–135°F (54–57°C) | Below USDA minimum — accepted risk |
| Medium | 140–145°F (60–63°C) | At or just below USDA minimum |
| Medium-well | 150–155°F (66–68°C) | Above USDA minimum |
| Well done | 160°F+ (71°C+) | Above USDA minimum |
Pork chops and roasts follow this same 145°F USDA whole-cut minimum as beef, veal and lamb — pork no longer needs to be cooked to 160°F+ "well done", a common outdated rule from before USDA updated its guidance.
This page deliberately keeps two things apart that recipes often blur together: the USDA safe minimum internal temperature, which is a food-safety rule about killing harmful bacteria, and doneness preference (rare, medium, well done), which is purely about texture and taste. For ground meat, poultry, fish, ham and leftovers, there's essentially only one number that matters — USDA's minimum is also the practical doneness target, since nobody is trying to eat ground beef or chicken "rare." For whole cuts of beef, pork, veal and lamb, though, USDA's 145°F minimum sits well below what many people consider a fully "done" steak, which is where confusion (and, sometimes, real food-safety risk) creeps in.
Poultry is always 165°F (74°C) — whole bird, breasts, thighs, wings, ground turkey or chicken, or stuffing cooked inside a bird — with no rest time required, because poultry doesn't carry the same margin of safety at lower temperatures that a seared whole muscle cut does. Ground meat from beef, pork, veal or lamb needs to reach 160°F (71°C), which is higher than the minimum for a whole cut of the same animal, because grinding distributes any surface bacteria all through the meat instead of leaving it on the exterior where cooking heat reaches it fastest.
Whole cuts of beef, pork, veal and lamb — steaks, roasts, chops — are where the two ideas need to be kept separate. USDA's safe minimum is 145°F (63°C), followed by a 3-minute rest before carving or serving (the rest itself is part of the safety margin, allowing temperature and bacterial reduction to finish evening out). That 145°F minimum corresponds to roughly a medium doneness. If you prefer your steak rare (≈120–125°F) or medium-rare (≈130–135°F), you are choosing to serve it below the USDA safe minimum — that's a personal choice many people make and is common in restaurants, but it is a choice, not a food-safety recommendation, and it carries a small accepted risk that increases the lower the temperature goes. If you want a "well done" steak in the traditional sense, that's roughly 160°F and up — well above the safety floor, purely a texture preference. Note also that pork specifically no longer needs the old 160°F+ "well done" treatment some cooks still assume — USDA revised pork's whole-cut minimum down to the same 145°F as beef, veal and lamb years ago, once trichinosis risk in modern commercial pork was found to be extremely low at that temperature.
Fish and seafood reach a safe minimum at 145°F (63°C), or the simpler visual check of flesh turning opaque and flaking easily with a fork. Fresh, raw ham (uncooked, as opposed to the pre-cooked hams most people buy) follows the same whole-cut rule as other fresh pork: 145°F with a 3-minute rest. A pre-cooked ham being reheated only needs to come back up to 140°F (60°C), since it was already fully cooked once during processing and reheating is about warming it through, not cooking it from raw. Leftovers and casseroles should be reheated to 165°F (74°C) throughout, the same target as poultry, regardless of what the dish originally contained.
Cooking a turkey and need the roasting time, not just the target temperature? Use the turkey cooking time calculator, which is built around the same 165°F safe minimum referenced here. If your oven reads in Celsius or Gas Mark, the oven temperature converter covers that separately.