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# Check Your Steps: Cook to Keep Your Family Safer from Food Poisoning
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/food_poisoning_0706110943/
- Published: 2011-07-06T22:42:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:04:14.000Z
- Description: The USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline's Food Safe Families campaign covers the Cook step: colour is no guide, so use a thermometer. Beef, pork, lamb and veal steaks, chops and roasts go to 145F with a three-minute rest, ground meat to 160F, poultry and reheated leftovers to 165F.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Biological, Food Safety, #vivvo-import

# *Posted July 05, 2011 |* 

By Dian Van, Manager of the USDA Meat & Poultry Hotline

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](http://www.youtube.com/usdafoodsafety?ref=foodconsumer.org#p/c/1FB7B9DA0B767F87/2/Sb29Zexh%5FVo) 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* happen, and that there are ways to help prevent it.

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](http://foodsafety.gov/keep/basics/cook/index.html?ref=foodconsumer.org) to make sure you’re cooking different types of food and using kitchen appliances properly to keep your family safe. Follow[#checksteps](http://twitter.com/?ref=foodconsumer.org#%21/search?q=%23checksteps) on Twitter or visit [www.Facebook.com/foodsafety.gov](http://www.facebook.com/foodsafety.gov) for updates from the *Food Safe Families* campaign.

from foodsafety.gov