USDA lowers guideline for safely cooked poultry

Your goose is cooked — even if the thermometer shows it at just 165 degrees inside.

After years of holiday chefs and poultry lovers grousing that the federal government's safe-cooking recommendations left their birds too dry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has lowered the internal temperature recommendation for turkey, chicken, duck and goose.

Cooking poultry to a minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees throughout — including any stuffing — will eliminate pathogens and viruses, including salmonella and avian flu, according to the department's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

The service based its previous recommendations — 180 degrees in the thigh, 170 degrees in the breast — on doneness, rather than food safety alone, said Tara Balsley, a spokeswoman with the service.

Once you get the whole turkey, ground chicken or fajita meat to at least 165 degrees, how much longer you cook it is a matter of palatability. "For personal preference, you may want to cook your poultry to a higher temperature," Balsley said.

The service called for further study into minimum safe-cooking temperatures last year, following an outbreak of salmonella in Minnesota and Michigan. Consumers there ate microwavable chicken meals that appeared ready-to-eat but contained poultry that actually required more cooking.

In a report released earlier this year, the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods found that food-borne illness could be better avoided with improved labeling and a single minimum temperature for poultry at which consumers could be confident that pathogens and viruses would be destroyed.

Information

USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: www.fsis.usda.gov

The USDA adopted the temperature change in March and is updating its Web site accordingly. When cooking a whole bird, the USDA recommends measuring the internal temperature with a food thermometer in the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thickest part of the breast.

Richard Lobb, a spokesman with the National Chicken Council, an industry group, said the council agrees with the USDA's new safe minimum temperature and is updating its Web site to reflect the change. The council, however, still recommends cooking dark meat to 180 or 185 degrees for doneness.

Karen Gaudette: 206-515-5618

or kgaudette@seattletimes.com