Food safety guide
These are the USDA safe minimum internal temperatures, US guidance. They are requirements, not suggestions: browning, juices, and time in the machine are all guesses, and the reading at the thickest point is the only fact.
| Food | Minimum internal temperature |
|---|---|
| All poultry: whole, parts, ground, stuffing | 165 °F / 74 °C |
| Ground beef, pork, veal, lamb | 160 °F / 71 °C |
| Whole cuts: beef, pork, veal, lambplus a rest of 3 minutes | 145 °F / 63 °C |
| Fish with fins | 145 °F / 63 °C |
| Egg dishes | 160 °F / 71 °C |
| Leftovers and casseroles | 165 °F / 74 °C |
Shellfish has no temperature target in USDA guidance. Cook until the flesh is pearly and opaque.
How to take the reading
Use a probe thermometer in the thickest part of the food, away from bone; bone conducts heat and reads high. For a whole bird, that is the deepest part of the thigh. For a casserole or a pot pie, it is the very center of the dish, not the edge: in deep food the edges run well ahead of the middle. Give the probe a few seconds to settle before trusting the number.
Where the converter stands
The converter deliberately errs toward underdone: an underdone cook gets more minutes, a burnt one is gone. That bias applies to browning only, never to safety. The check time exists so the result is verified before serving, and when a reading comes up short, the food goes back in until it reaches the table above. No setting on this site trades a safety floor for a crisper surface.
Resting counts
The whole cuts figure includes a rest of 3 minutes after the heat. The rest is part of the requirement: the center keeps climbing while the meat sits, and cutting early both loses juice and interrupts that climb. Ground meat and poultry figures have no rest built in; the number itself must be reached in the machine.