What do you need to know?
• Cooking foods thoroughly kill harmful bugs.
• Some foods must be cooked thoroughly to kill bugs. You must know which of your foods are high risk and must be cooked thoroughly every time (e.g. chicken).
• Mincing meats means that any bugs on the surface may be spread through the product. Minced meat products must be thoroughly cooked.
• You don't need to take the temperature of thinly sliced poultry.
What do you need to do?
• Cook poultry (e.g. chicken, duck, chicken livers) and minced or finely ground meat (e.g. sausages, meat patties) to specific temperatures for a set amount of time to make sure they are safe.
• Always use one of the following time/temperature combinations if you cook poultry, minced or finely ground meat, or chicken livers:
Internal temperature | Minimum time at temperature |
65°C | 15 minutes |
70°C | 3 minutes |
75°C | 30 seconds |
• Use a thermometer to check that the centre of the thickest part of the meat and/or poultry thicker than 4cm has reached one of the time/temperature combinations above.
• You must either:
◦◦ record the temperature of at least 1 item from
each batch, or
◦◦ you must test each batch of poultry or minced meat you cook unless you can prove your method
of cooking works every time. See the 'Proving the method you use to kill bugs works every time' card.
• Throw out any cooked poultry and minced meat which has been held between 5°C and 60°C, and reheated to above 75°C but not eaten within 4 hours.
What do you need to show?
• Show your verifier records of how you safely cook poultry and minced meat. Record:
◦◦ the food,
◦◦ the date cooked,
◦◦ the temperature the food was cooked to and how long it stayed at this temperature.
• If you can prove your cooking method works, show your verifier records required from the 'Proving the method you use to kill bugs works every time' card.
