Foods & cuts · Pork

Sausage

Seasoned minced meat in a casing, and the most-cooked thing on a British barbecue by a distance. Usually pork, frequently not — beef, lamb and mixed sausages are all ordinary — so the species on this record is the common case rather than a definition.

What it is

Form: Sausage
Typical weight: 50–90 g
Typical thickness: 20–32 mm
Cut: Not a cut of anything

This form carries interior contamination risk. Processing has moved surface bacteria into the middle, so the whole mass must reach the safety endpoint — unlike a whole cut of the same animal, whose interior was sterile before it was cut.

Why it behaves as it does

Minced meat in a skin, which sets both its risks and its failure modes. Because it is minced it takes the ground-meat safety endpoint rather than a whole-cut one, and because it is in a casing it splits when heated fast — which is why the only retrieved guidance for it calls for LOW direct heat rather than the fierce heat a sausage usually gets. No publisher BBQHQ holds states an internal temperature for one.

When is it done?

Food-safety endpoint

Food Standards Agency
In the UK, food should reach 70 °C held for 2 minutes, or an equivalent time-and-temperature combination, at the slowest-heating point.
- 80 °C (176 °F) held for 0 min — measured at the slowest-heating point of the food.
- 75 °C (167 °F) held for 1 min — measured at the slowest-heating point of the food.
- 70 °C (158 °F) held for 2 min — measured at the slowest-heating point of the food.
- 65 °C (149 °F) held for 10 min — measured at the slowest-heating point of the food.
- 60 °C (140 °F) held for 45 min — measured at the slowest-heating point of the food.
The rule and its source
In the UK, food is considered adequately cooked when it reaches 70 °C held for 2 minutes, or an equivalent time-and-temperature combination.
Well established
- Food Standards Agency — States this directly
  “70°C for 2 minutes”
  How it was measured:
  Temperature is that of the food itself, at the slowest-heating point.
  Equivalent to a six-log reduction in vegetative bacteria.
  Where it applies:
  England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Scotland follows equivalent guidance.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
- Food Standards Agency — States this directly
  “60°C for 45 minutes, 65°C for 10 minutes, 70°C for 2 minutes, 75°C for 30 seconds”
  The combinations are presented as alternatives, not as a scale of increasing safety.
  Long, low cooks may satisfy a lower-temperature combination many times over without ever reaching the highest figure.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
Food Standards Scotland
In Scotland, a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the food should read 75 °C or above, and minced meat products such as burgers, sausages and kebabs must be cooked thoroughly all the way through.
- 75 °C (167 °F) — measured at the thickest part of the food.
The rule and its source
In Scotland, Food Standards Scotland advises consumers that food is adequately cooked when a thermometer in the thickest part reads 75 °C or above.
Well supported
- Food Standards Scotland — States this directly
  “When inserted in the thickest part of the food, the thermometer should read 75°C or above.”
  Safety regime:
  Consumer guidance, addressed to people cooking at home.
  Where it applies:
  Scotland.
  A single core temperature where the FSA publishes 70 °C held for two minutes plus a ladder of equivalents. Two food bodies in one state giving different consumer advice, and neither is in error — the same shape as the FSA/USDA/MPI divergence the safety model was built around, arriving inside the United Kingdom.
  The page states no resting guidance.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-14
New Zealand Food Safety / Ministry for Primary Industries
In New Zealand, meat should reach 75 °C or more at the middle of the thickest part, or an equivalent combination: 75 °C for 30 seconds, 70 °C for 3 minutes, or 65 °C for 15 minutes.
- 75 °C (167 °F) held for 1 min — measured at the middle of the thickest part.
- 70 °C (158 °F) held for 3 min — measured at the middle of the thickest part.
- 65 °C (149 °F) held for 15 min — measured at the middle of the thickest part.
The rule and its source
In New Zealand, meat should reach 75 °C or more at the middle of the thickest part, or an equivalent combination of 75 °C for 30 seconds, 70 °C for 3 minutes, or 65 °C for 15 minutes.
Well established
- New Zealand Food Safety / Ministry for Primary Industries — States this directly
  “the middle of the thickest part (where the temperature should be 75°C or more)”
  How it was measured:
  Middle of the thickest part, explicitly.
  Where it applies:
  New Zealand.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
- New Zealand Food Safety / Ministry for Primary Industries — States this directly
  “75°C for 30 seconds, 70°C for 3 minutes, or 65°C for 15 minutes”
  These differ from the FSA's equivalents at the same temperatures — 3 minutes against 2 at 70 °C, 15 against 10 at 65 °C.
  Where it applies:
  New Zealand.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
Tenderised meat is grouped with minced meat rather than with whole cuts, and must be cooked through when barbecued.
Well supported
- New Zealand Food Safety / Ministry for Primary Industries — States this directly
  New Zealand Food Safety advises that chicken, tenderised meat and minced meat products need to be barbecued until they are cooked through, over 75 °C all the way through.
  Form:
  Groups tenderised meat with mince rather than with whole cuts — direct support for treating mechanical tenderisation as an interior-contamination form.
  Stated specifically in the context of barbecuing.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
Health Canada
In Canada, ground beef, veal and lamb — including burgers, meatballs and sausages — should reach 71 °C (160 °F).
- 71 °C (160 °F) — measured at the centre of the thickest patty or piece.
The rule and its source
In Canada, ground beef, veal and lamb should reach 71 °C (160 °F) and ground poultry 74 °C (165 °F).
Well established
- Health Canada — States this directly
  “Ground meat, for example, burgers, meatballs, sausages 71 160”
  71 °C for ground red meat is the same figure USDA FSIS gives consumers.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-15
Food Standards Australia New Zealand
Across Australia and New Zealand, cook chicken, sausages and hamburgers thoroughly to an internal temperature of 75 °C, checked with a food thermometer. Steaks may be cooked to preference.
- 75 °C (167 °F) — measured at the internal centre of the food, checked with a food thermometer.
The rule and its source
Across Australia and New Zealand, FSANZ advises cooking chicken, sausages and hamburgers thoroughly to an internal temperature of 75 °C, while stating that steaks may be cooked to preference.
Well established
- Food Standards Australia New Zealand — States this directly
  “Cook chicken, sausages and hamburgers thoroughly, to an internal temperature of 75oC - check the temperature with a food thermometer.”
  Where it applies:
  Australia and New Zealand together. FSANZ's remit is bi-national, which is why a New Zealand reader is covered by this AND by MPI.
  Form:
  Names chicken, sausages and hamburgers — poultry plus the two commonest minced forms.
  Method:
  Stated in the context of sausage sizzles and barbecues specifically.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
- Food Standards Australia New Zealand — States this directly
  “Steaks can be cooked to preference”
  A regulator saying explicitly where its own rule stops. Most authorities leave this to be inferred; FSANZ writes it down.
  Form:
  The distinction is FORM, not species: the same animal appears on both sides of the sentence.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
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

well done — 71–75 °C (160–167 °F)

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

PUBLISHED, AND THE BAND IS THE PUBLISHERS' RATHER THAN A COMPROMISE. Three authorities name sausages explicitly and do not agree on the number: Health Canada 71 °C, Food Standards Scotland 75 °C, FSANZ 75 °C. The band spans them instead of averaging them, and the figure that applies to a given reader is their own jurisdiction's, which BBQHQ resolves separately. The United States is the exception and is the reason the composition argument still exists at all: FSIS states 160 °F for ground beef and its form list excludes sausages, so an American reader's 71 °C is BBQHQ reasoning that a sausage is minced meat in a casing — the same argument that refuses a pink burger — rather than a figure FSIS printed for sausages. The gap as first written said that nobody published one, and three publishers already had.

Where this comes from

A beef burger cannot be treated like a steak: mincing moves surface bacteria into the interior, so serving one rare or pink requires controls that a whole cut does not.

Well established

Food Standards Agency — States this directly
The FSA publishes separate guidance for less than thoroughly cooked beef burgers, covering controls that reduce the risks of serving them rare or pink — controls that whole cuts of beef do not require.
Written for food businesses and local authorities rather than for domestic cooks.
Why it happens:
Mincing distributes surface bacteria through the interior, so the interior of a burger cannot be treated like the interior of a steak.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13

Texture endpoint — how you actually know

Evenly browned, casing intact and taut rather than split

A split casing is the sign the heat was too high rather than that the sausage is done — the filling expands faster than the skin can stretch. A sausage that has burst has already lost the fat that was going to keep it juicy.

How long it takes

Sausages, direct low heat

Estimated cooking window

10 min–12 min

Low confidence

Why this is a range, not a number

Thickness varies between pieces
Cookers hold temperature imperfectly
How much food is on at once
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: 2
Documents: 2
Publishers timing this cook: 1

Weber-Stephen Products LLC

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

Only one source applies to these conditions.
Several documents, but all from one publisher.
All timing evidence comes from equipment manufacturers describing their own products.
The endpoint is well established; the timing behind it is not. Cook to the endpoint.
No source states the weight of the food.

How the sources were combined

Weber UK gives 5-6 minutes a side at 120 °C, which is deliberately LOW for direct heat: the article's reasoning is that a sausage heated gradually does not split its casing, and that letting air into the barbecue pushes the temperature up. Ten to twelve minutes total. ONE PUBLISHER FOR THE DURATION, and the figure sits on a merguez recipe rather than being offered as general sausage guidance, so the scope is narrower than the page's title suggests. A second was looked for and not found: Australian Pork Limited states a 2 cm thickness and 8-10 minutes but cooks on a barbecue FLAT PLATE, which is a different surface from the grate and one BBQHQ does not model; Clemson publishes a dedicated sausage factsheet with no cooking time on it at all; safefood is blocked at 403 across repeated attempts and publishes an endpoint rather than a duration in any case. THE ENDPOINT IS A DIFFERENT MATTER AND IT IS PUBLISHED. Food Standards Scotland, FSANZ and Health Canada each state a figure and each names sausages explicitly, so the rules attached here are the ones that actually cover the sausage form. Only in the United States is the endpoint still inherited: FSIS's 160 °F is stated for ground beef and its form list excludes sausages, so an American reader gets 71 °C from BBQHQ's argument that a sausage is minced meat in a casing rather than from anything FSIS printed about sausages. A safety endpoint does not corroborate a cooking window, and this profile is now the clearest example in the catalogue of why the two are counted separately: four publishers on the endpoint, one on the clock.

What makes the window as wide as it is

Thickness varies between pieces
Cookers hold temperature imperfectly
How much food is on at once
Individual animals and pieces differ

One open question tracked for this.

When it goes wrong

Burnt outside, underdone inside: Burgers or sausages charred outside and raw inside — 2 distinguishable causes.
Still raw in the middle: Burgers or sausages charred outside and raw inside — 2 distinguishable causes.
It caused flare-ups: Flare-ups — 2 distinguishable causes.

Afterwards

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

What we don't know about this

The only barbecue timing found for a sausage is attached to one recipe rather than published as a general rule, so it is carried as a single, qualified source.

What we know we’re missing records what was searched for each of these, and what would settle it.