USDA guidance sets three main safe minimum internal temperatures: 145°F for whole cuts of beef, pork, lamb, and veal, followed by a 3-minute rest; 160°F for ground versions of those same meats; and 165°F for all poultry, whether ground or whole. These numbers, not color, texture, or how long something's been on the heat, are what actually confirm meat is safe to eat.
Knowing why whole cuts and ground meat get different targets, and why poultry doesn't follow the same whole-versus-ground split, makes the full chart much easier to remember than treating each number as arbitrary.
Whole cuts of beef, pork, lamb, and veal: 145°F
A steak, chop, or roast, any whole, unground cut of beef, pork, lamb, or veal, needs to reach 145°F internally, checked with a food thermometer in the thickest part, away from bone, fat, or gristle. After reaching that temperature, USDA guidance calls for a 3-minute rest before cutting into or eating the meat.
This rest period isn't just a texture recommendation, though it does help texture. It's part of the safety guidance itself: maintaining that temperature for those 3 minutes is what completes the safety margin the 145°F target is built around.
Ground beef, pork, lamb, and veal: 160°F
Ground versions of the same meats need a higher target, 160°F, and the reason comes down to how grinding changes where bacteria can end up. A whole cut's surface is where bacteria are most likely to be present, and searing or cooking that exterior addresses the majority of the risk even if the interior stays at a lower, more medium-rare temperature.
Grinding distributes whatever bacteria were on the surface throughout the entire mass of meat, which means the center of a ground-meat patty or meatball can carry the same bacterial risk the original cut's surface did. Reaching 160°F throughout is what addresses that redistributed risk, which is why a "medium-rare" ground beef patty doesn't carry the same safety profile a medium-rare whole steak does.
Poultry, ground or whole: 165°F
Chicken and turkey both need to reach 165°F, and unlike beef, pork, lamb, and veal, this number doesn't change between whole cuts and ground poultry. The same target applies to a whole roasted chicken, a chicken breast, and ground turkey alike.
This single number reflects poultry's specific bacterial risk profile, including Salmonella, which cooking to 165°F reliably addresses regardless of whether the poultry is whole or ground.
Why color and texture aren't reliable checks
Judging doneness by color, texture, or whether juices run clear is a common habit, but none of these are dependable safety indicators. Ground beef can turn brown before actually reaching 160°F, and chicken can turn white before reaching 165°F. Our roundup of common food-safety mistakes covers this specific issue in more depth, including how often people rely on visual cues instead of an actual temperature check.
A food thermometer, used correctly in the thickest part of the meat, away from bone, fat, and gristle, is the only reliable way to confirm any of these numbers have actually been reached.
The full chart at a glance
- Whole beef, pork, lamb, veal (steaks, chops, roasts): 145°F, plus a 3-minute rest
- Ground beef, pork, lamb, veal: 160°F
- All poultry, ground or whole (chicken, turkey): 165°F
- Seafood generally: 145°F, covered in full elsewhere on this site, including specific guidance for salmon, shrimp, and shellfish
Why the 145°F standard doesn't apply the same way to every whole cut
The 145°F whole-cut standard assumes a genuinely whole, unaltered piece of meat, where surface cooking addresses the actual risk. Mechanically tenderized or needle-injected cuts, along with anything that's been cubed, pierced repeatedly, or otherwise processed to move part of the surface into the interior, don't reliably meet that assumption anymore, since the process can carry bacteria beneath the exterior in a way a simple sear doesn't reach. Whether blue or rare steak is safe covers this distinction in more depth, including how to tell whether a specific cut still qualifies as genuinely whole.
This distinction matters most for anyone buying pre-seasoned, marinated, or "tenderized" cuts at a grocery store, since these labels can indicate a mechanical process took place, changing which safety standard actually applies, even though the cut still looks like a whole steak or chop on the package.
Special cases: eggs and combination dishes
Eggs carry their own guidance, generally cooked until both the yolk and white are firm for someone in a higher-risk group, though a runnier yolk is a widely accepted choice for the general population given a reasonably fresh, well-handled egg. Combination dishes, a casserole containing both ground meat and egg, for instance, are generally held to whichever safe temperature applies to the highest-risk ingredient in the dish, in this case 160°F for the ground meat component, since a mixed dish doesn't get to average its ingredients' individual risk levels down to something lower.
This same logic applies to a dish combining chicken and a lower-temperature ingredient like a partially cooked vegetable stuffing: 165°F, the higher of the two relevant standards, is the number that governs the whole dish, since a component reaching a lower temperature doesn't offset a component that needs to reach a higher one.
Reheating leftovers to a safe temperature
Leftovers follow a different rule than freshly cooked meat: regardless of what the food originally was, reheated leftovers should reach 165°F throughout, a single standard that applies across beef, pork, poultry, and combination dishes alike once they've been refrigerated and are being reheated. This is distinct from the original cooking temperatures covered above, which vary by meat type and whether it's whole or ground, since reheating guidance is built around addressing any bacterial growth that may have occurred during storage, not the original cooking process.
How this connects to specific cuts and questions
This guide covers the baseline numbers; several more specific questions build on it. Steak doneness covers how rare, medium-rare, and well-done map onto temperatures above the 145°F safety floor. Whether 145°F applies the same way to chicken addresses a common point of confusion between beef's and poultry's different targets, and chicken thigh temperature specifically covers why dark meat is sometimes cooked past the minimum for texture reasons.
Why these specific numbers were chosen
Each of the three main safe minimums, 145°F, 160°F, and 165°F, reflects the temperature at which the specific bacteria most relevant to that food category are reliably destroyed within a short, practical timeframe, not an arbitrary round number chosen for convenience. Salmonella and E. coli, the bacteria of greatest concern for beef, pork, and ground meat generally, are reliably killed at 145°F and 160°F respectively given the sear-versus-throughout distinction covered above, while Salmonella specifically requires the higher 165°F standard for poultry given how it can be distributed more broadly through the meat rather than concentrated at the surface the way beef's risk typically is.
Understanding that these numbers come from actual bacterial kill-rate research, rather than being conservative guesses layered on top of already-adequate lower numbers, is part of why deviating from them, particularly for ground meat or poultry, carries real risk rather than a small margin of extra caution being sacrificed unnecessarily.
Wild game and less common meats
Wild game meat, venison, elk, rabbit, and similar less commonly cooked proteins, generally follows the same whole-cut 145°F standard covered throughout this guide when prepared as a steak, chop, or roast, since the same surface-bacteria logic that applies to farmed beef and pork applies to wild game as well. Ground wild game, however, carries an additional consideration beyond the standard 160°F ground-meat guidance: wild game has a higher documented risk of certain parasites compared to farmed meat, given the less controlled conditions wild animals live and feed under, which is part of why some wild game guidance recommends cooking slightly more thoroughly or freezing at specific temperatures for a set duration before consumption, addressing parasite risk in addition to the standard bacterial concerns covered for farmed meat.
This distinction matters specifically for anyone processing their own wild-harvested game rather than buying commercially raised meat, since the usual safety assumptions built into USDA guidance for farmed beef and pork don't automatically transfer without modification to game meat harvested and processed outside that same commercial, inspected supply chain.
Veal and lamb specifically within the whole-cut category
Veal and lamb are grouped with beef and pork under the same 145°F whole-cut standard throughout this guide, and for good reason: the underlying surface-bacteria logic that governs beef's 145°F target applies identically to veal and lamb, since both are muscle meat from mammals with the same basic bacterial risk profile concentrated at the cut surface rather than distributed throughout. This is part of why USDA guidance groups these four meats together under one shared standard rather than assigning each species its own separate number, despite them coming from different animals with different textures and flavors.
Ground veal and ground lamb similarly follow the same 160°F ground-meat standard as ground beef and pork, for the identical reason already covered: grinding redistributes surface bacteria throughout the meat regardless of which specific mammal it came from, meaning the higher ground-meat target applies consistently across this whole category rather than varying by species.
How this chart applies to sausage specifically
Sausage occupies an interesting middle position in this chart, since it's technically a ground or emulsified meat product, meaning it generally falls under the 160°F ground-meat standard (or 165°F if made from poultry) rather than the 145°F whole-cut standard, even when it's stuffed into a casing that gives it a more "whole piece" appearance than a loose ground patty. This is worth knowing specifically because sausage's casing and shape can create a visual impression of a solid, whole cut, when its actual safety profile follows the ground-meat logic instead, given that the meat inside has been ground or processed before being stuffed.
Checking a sausage's specific meat type, beef, pork, or poultry, and applying the corresponding ground-meat standard, 160°F for beef and pork sausage or 165°F for poultry sausage, is the correct approach rather than assuming a lower, whole-cut-style target simply because the final product looks like a single, solid piece rather than loose ground meat.
Applying this chart when combining multiple meats in one dish
A dish combining more than one type of meat, a meatloaf blending beef and pork, or a stuffing that includes both sausage and poultry, follows the same highest-common-denominator logic already covered for combination dishes generally: the entire dish needs to reach whichever individual component's safe temperature is highest, since a dish doesn't average out multiple ingredients' individual risk profiles into something lower. A beef-and-pork meatloaf, both individually calling for 160°F when ground, is straightforward since both components share the same target, but a dish mixing ground beef with poultry sausage needs to reach the higher 165°F poultry standard throughout, even though the beef component alone would only require 160°F.
This is a genuinely common point of confusion for a recipe combining multiple meat types, and checking each individual component's required standard before determining which single target actually governs the finished, combined dish avoids under-cooking a dish based on only one ingredient's lower individual requirement.
The short version: 145°F for whole cuts of beef, pork, lamb, and veal with a 3-minute rest, 160°F for the ground versions of those same meats, and 165°F for poultry regardless of whether it's whole or ground. A thermometer, not a guess based on color, is what actually confirms any of these numbers.