Poultry Cooking Temperature

Fourth of July Food Safety Tips

1. Clean your hands and surfaces often. Wash your hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds before and after handling food. Wash your cutting boards, dishes, utensils and countertops with hot soapy water after preparing each food item and before you go on to the next food. Clean your grill before and after each use.

2. Separate raw food from ready-to-eat foods. Cross-contamination during preparation, grilling and serving food is a prime cause of food-borne illness. Wash plates, utensils, and cutting boards that held raw meat or poultry before using them again for cooked food (such as raw versus cooked hamburgers and hot dogs). When packing the cooler chest for an outing, wrap raw meats securely; avoid raw meat juices from coming in contact with ready-to-eat food.

3. Cook foods to safe temperatures.  Food safety experts agree that food is safely cooked when it is heated for a long enough time and at a high enough temperature to kill harmful bacteria that cause food-borne illness. The only way to know this is by using a food thermometer; you can’t judge doneness by color alone. Cook your burgers to an internal temperature of at least 160°F , poultry to 165°F . Defrost and marinate all foods in the refrigerator, and cook your meat completely at your picnic site – partial cooking of food ahead of time allows bacteria to survive and multiply to the point that subsequent cooking cannot destroy them.

4. Chill foods within a certain timeframe. Never let raw meat, poultry, eggs, cooked food or cut fresh fruits or vegetables sit at room temperature more than two hours before putting them in the refrigerator or freezer (one hour when the temperature is above 90°F). Food left out of refrigeration for more than 1 to 2 hours may not be safe to eat. If you have any doubts, throw it out.

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USDA Blog » Check Your Steps: Cook to Keep Your Family Safer from ...

While federal food safety agencies work hard every day to keep food safe before it gets to the consumer, the risk of foodborne illness has not been eliminated. One in six Americans will get food poisoning this year—that’s 48 million people. The USDA Meat & Poultry Hotline feels that it is important to give you information that can help prevent food poisoning when preparing meals at home.

Four simple behaviors—Clean, Separate, Cook, and Chill—are the focus of the new Food Safe Families campaign and can help you keep your family safe when preparing, serving and storing food. Have you seen our ad with a pig in a sauna, reminding Americans of the need to cook meat to the right temperature? We want consumers to understand that food poisoning can

Today and for the next three Tuesdays, we’ll post a blog focusing on one of these four important steps.

COOK

Always cook food to the right temperature.

The ONLY way to know when meats, poultry and seafood have reached a safe internal temperature is to use a food thermometer. You can’t tell by looking or by the color of meat or poultry.

Cook all raw beef, pork, lamb and veal steaks, chops, and roasts to a minimum internal temperature of 145 °F as measured with a food thermometer before removing meat from the heat source. For safety and quality, allow meat to rest for at least three minutes before carving or consuming. For reasons of personal preference, consumers may choose to cook meat to higher temperatures. Cook all ground meat, including hamburgers, to 160 °F. Cook all chicken and turkey—whole, pieces or ground—to 165 °F. Reheat leftovers to 165 °F. Always place the food thermometer in the thickest part of the food, away from bone and fat, to check the temperature. Use a food thermometer to check the internal temperature of the food in several places. When cooking in a microwave oven, stir, cover, and rotate food for even cooking. Let food rest for a few minutes after cooking it in the microwave. This helps your food cook more completely by allowing colder areas of food time to absorb heat from hotter areas of food.

More information can be found here to make sure you’re cooking different types of food and using kitchen appliances properly to keep your family safe.