Foods & cuts · Pork

Pork tenderloin

The leanest muscle on the animal and the fastest-cooking joint in the catalogue. Its main hazard is its name: 'pork loin' is a different and far larger cut, and recipes confuse them constantly.

What it is

Form: Whole muscle
Typical weight: 350–600 g
Typical thickness: 38–60 mm
Cut: Pork tenderloin

When is it done?

Food-safety endpoint

Food Standards Agency
The Food Standards Agency names pork alongside chicken and minced products as food that should not be served pink or rare, because bacteria can be present within the meat rather than only on its surface. A whole cut of pork is therefore not covered by the permission the same guidance gives to steaks.
The rule and its source
The same Food Standards Agency guidance names pork and chicken, with minced products, as foods that should not be served pink or rare — placing whole cuts of pork on the opposite side of the sentence from whole cuts of beef and lamb.
Well established
- Food Standards Agency — States this directly
  “other meats, like chicken and pork, as well as minced meat products such as burgers, kebabs and sausages should not be served pink or rare as bacteria can be in the meat”
  What it covers:
  Applies to England, Northern Ireland and Wales, as the document states.
  Pork is named, as a species, on the restricted side. This is the sentence that stops the red-meat permission being read as covering whole cuts generally: a pork loin is a whole cut and is excluded by name.
  Shape:
  Again no figure. The FSA's numerical endpoint — 70 °C for two minutes or an equivalent — is published in its business guidance and modelled separately; this sentence is a form rule and is recorded as one.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-14
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service
In the United States, whole cuts of beef, pork, lamb and veal — steaks, chops and roasts — should reach 145 °F (63 °C), followed by a rest of at least three minutes before carving or eating.
- 63 °C (145 °F) — measured at the centre of the thickest part, away from bone and fat.
The rule and its source
In the United States, whole cuts of beef, pork, lamb and veal have a safe minimum internal temperature of 145 °F (63 °C), followed by a rest of at least three minutes.
Well established
- United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service — States this directly
  “Cook raw beef, pork, lamb and veal steaks, chops, and roasts to a minimum internal temperature of 145 °F ... allow meat to rest for at least three minutes”
  Form:
  Whole cuts only. Ground meats are covered by a separate, higher figure.
  The three-minute rest is part of the safety requirement, not only a quality step.
  How it was measured:
  As measured with a food thermometer before removing from the heat source.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
Health Canada
In Canada, pork pieces and whole cuts — bone-in chops, boneless loin chops, rib roast and loin roast — should reach 71 °C (160 °F), and fish 70 °C (158 °F). Shellfish and crustaceans are 74 °C. No rest interval is attached to any of these.
- 71 °C (160 °F) — measured at the centre of the thickest part.
- 70 °C (158 °F) — measured at the thickest part of the fillet.
The rule and its source
In Canada, pork pieces and whole cuts should reach 71 °C (160 °F), and fish 70 °C (158 °F). No rest interval is attached to either.
Well established
- Health Canada — States this directly
  “Pieces and whole cuts, for example, bone-in chops, boneless loin chops, rib roast, loin roast 71 160 ... Fish 70 158”
  The sharpest disagreement in the catalogue between two neighbours. Canada gives a pork chop 71 °C; USDA FSIS gives 63 °C with a three-minute rest. That is eight degrees and a rest interval between two countries whose supermarkets sell the same cuts. Fish diverges too: 70 °C against the American 63 °C.
  Canada's chart attaches no rest interval to any row.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-15
Food Standards Australia New Zealand
Use separate equipment for raw and cooked meat, and never put cooked meat back on a tray or plate that held it raw. Throw away leftovers unless there is refrigeration available to cool them quickly.
The rule and its source
At a barbecue, raw and cooked meat must be kept apart: separate equipment, and cooked meat never returned to the tray that held it raw.
Well established
- Food Standards Australia New Zealand — States this directly
  “never place cooked meat back on the trays that held the raw meat”
  The single most common barbecue food-safety failure, and one that no cooking temperature prevents.
  Where it applies:
  Australia and New Zealand.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
Food Standards Agency
Wash a thermometer stem in hot soapy water before and after each use, and do not put the head in water.
The rule and its source
A thermometer stem should be washed in hot soapy water before and after each use, and the head should not be put in water.
Well established
- Clemson Cooperative Extension — States this directly
  “Make sure to clean the stem of your food thermometer with hot soapy water before and after each use. Do not immerse the head in water.”
  Before and after, not just after. a probe that went into an undercooked bird and then into the next one is a cross-contamination route BBQHQ's food-safety model already recognises between surfaces and hands, and has never described for the instrument that touches every piece of meat on the grate.
  The head exclusion is an equipment instruction rather than a hygiene one — electronics — and is recorded here because it is in the same sentence and separating them would misquote the source.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-21

Culinary doneness — a preference, not a safety figure

medium — 63–65 °C (145–149 °F)

Measure at: The centre of the thickest part, probing along the length.

A tenderloin is the leanest cut on the animal and has almost no margin past the endpoint. The difference between 63 °C and 71 °C is not subtle here.

Where this comes from

In the United States, whole cuts of beef, pork, lamb and veal have a safe minimum internal temperature of 145 °F (63 °C), followed by a rest of at least three minutes.

Well established

United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service — States this directly
“Cook raw beef, pork, lamb and veal steaks, chops, and roasts to a minimum internal temperature of 145 °F ... allow meat to rest for at least three minutes”
Form:
Whole cuts only. Ground meats are covered by a separate, higher figure.
The three-minute rest is part of the safety requirement, not only a quality step.
How it was measured:
As measured with a food thermometer before removing from the heat source.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13

How long it takes

Pork tenderloin, direct heat

Estimated cooking window

20 min–30 min

Moderate confidence

Why this is a range, not a number

Weight varies within the range this covers
Cookers hold temperature imperfectly
How cold the food was when it went on
Individual animals and pieces differ

Cook to the endpoint, not to the clock. The window tells you when to start checking.

What this rests on

BBQHQ publishes a window for this cook.

Observations: 3
Documents: 3
Publishers timing this cook: 2

Clemson Cooperative Extension · National Pork Board

Also on this page, supplying endpoints or doneness rather than timings: United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service. They are not a second opinion about how long the cook takes.

Why confidence is not higher

At least one source does not state the cooker temperature.
No source states whether the food went on fridge-cold or rested.

How the sources were combined

Two determinations, and the second corrected a statement made here earlier. Clemson Cooperative Extension gives 20 to 25 minutes broiled or grilled for a ½ to 1½ lb tenderloin. This note previously said the National Pork Board's grilling table 'gives kabob cubes rather than the whole muscle' — that was true of the page first read and false of the Board's full cooking chart, retrieved later, which gives a 1–1½ lb tenderloin 20 to 30 minutes over direct medium heat. The windows overlap across their whole lower half, so they union to 20–30. Note that this is a second PUBLISHER rather than a second document from one: Clemson is an extension service and the Pork Board is a levy body. The endpoint remains on firmer ground than the timing: 63 °C with a three-minute rest is the USDA whole-cut figure and applies to this cut exactly as it applies to a chop.

What makes the window as wide as it is

Weight varies within the range this covers
Cookers hold temperature imperfectly
How cold the food was when it went on
Individual animals and pieces differ

One open question tracked for this.

When it goes wrong

It came out dry: The meat came out dry — 4 distinguishable causes.
It came out tough: The meat came out tough — 3 distinguishable causes.
Burnt outside, underdone inside: Steak burnt outside and underdone inside — 2 distinguishable causes.

Afterwards

Cooling, keeping and reheating what is left is general guidance for barbecue leftovers. Neither UK authority publishes anything specific to pork tenderloin, and BBQHQ does not invent a distinction they do not make.