Safety

Six kinds of hazard sit around a live fire and they are not one subject. Food safety is jurisdictional and varies by country; carbon monoxide is chemistry and does not.

Carbon monoxide — read this first

Never take a barbecue into a tent, awning, caravan, motorhome, garage, shed or any other enclosed space — including to keep warm, and including when it is no longer flaming.

Burning charcoal, wood or gas produces carbon monoxide, which is colourless, odourless and gives no warning before it causes harm. In an enclosed space it accumulates to lethal concentrations.

Where this comes from

A barbecue continues to produce carbon monoxide as it cools. A barbecue that is no longer flaming is still lethal in an enclosed space.

Well established

Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland) — States this directly
“Even a cooling barbecue gives off plenty of poisonous carbon monoxide”
Why it happens:
Incomplete combustion continues while fuel is still smouldering.
Combustion chemistry, so it does not vary by jurisdiction — unlike the food rules.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland) — States this directly
A barbecue should never be taken into a tent, awning, caravan or motorhome, including when it is only cooling.
What it covers:
Applies to charcoal and other combustion barbecues.
Carbon monoxide is colourless and odourless, so there is no warning before symptoms.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
London Fire Brigade — States this directly
“After cooking, let it cool and make sure it is properly out – smouldering ashes can give off dangerous carbon monoxide fumes and can be fatal.”
An independent authority reaching the same conclusion as the Public Health Agency by a different route — a fire service rather than a public-health body.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13

Carbon monoxide — read this first

A barbecue continues to give off carbon monoxide as it cools. Never bring one inside to finish cooling, and never store one indoors until it is completely cold.

This is the version of the rule people get wrong, because the danger is not obviously present: the flames are out, the coals look spent, and the barbecue seems safe to move. It is not. Deaths have occurred exactly this way.

Where this comes from

A barbecue continues to produce carbon monoxide as it cools. A barbecue that is no longer flaming is still lethal in an enclosed space.

Well established

Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland) — States this directly
“Even a cooling barbecue gives off plenty of poisonous carbon monoxide”
Why it happens:
Incomplete combustion continues while fuel is still smouldering.
Combustion chemistry, so it does not vary by jurisdiction — unlike the food rules.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland) — States this directly
A barbecue should never be taken into a tent, awning, caravan or motorhome, including when it is only cooling.
What it covers:
Applies to charcoal and other combustion barbecues.
Carbon monoxide is colourless and odourless, so there is no warning before symptoms.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
London Fire Brigade — States this directly
“After cooking, let it cool and make sure it is properly out – smouldering ashes can give off dangerous carbon monoxide fumes and can be fatal.”
An independent authority reaching the same conclusion as the Public Health Agency by a different route — a fire service rather than a public-health body.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13

Carbon monoxide — read this first

An electric smoker's heat comes from a mains element that burns nothing, and the appliance still emits carbon monoxide, because the wood chips it makes smoke with are burning inside the cabinet. Masterbuilt warns that burning wood chips gives off carbon monoxide, which has no odour and can cause death, and that chips must never be burned inside homes, vehicles, tents, garages or any enclosed area.

The inference that kills is: no combustion, therefore no carbon monoxide, therefore this one is fine in the garage. It is wrong twice over on an electric smoker. The ENERGY source produces no carbon monoxide and the APPLIANCE does, because heat and smoke come from two different places — which is the distinction this catalogue has always modelled and had never been able to state as a hazard. The warning is a manufacturer's, about its own appliance, and it works against that manufacturer's commercial interest in electric smoking seeming cleaner than charcoal.

Where this comes from

An electric smoker emits carbon monoxide even though its energy source produces none. Its heat is a mains element; its smoke is wood chips burning on a tray inside the cabinet, and the maker warns that burning wood chips gives off carbon monoxide, which has no odour and can cause death.

Well supported

Masterbuilt Manufacturing, LLC — States this directly
“CARBON MONOXIDE HAZARD — Burning wood chips gives off carbon monoxide, which has no odor and can cause death. DO NOT burn wood chips inside homes, vehicles, tents, garages or any enclosed areas. Use only outdoors where it is well ventilated.”
The statement that separates energy from smoke as a hazard and not only as a model. The appliance's heat is a mains element and produces no carbon monoxide. Its smoke is wood combusting on a tray inside the cabinet, and that does. An electric smoker therefore emits carbon monoxide while running on a fuel that emits none.
A manufacturer instructing on its own appliance, which is the one thing such a source may always be cited for — and the manufacturer here has a commercial interest in electric smokers seeming SAFER than charcoal, which makes the warning evidence against its own interest.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-20
Masterbuilt Manufacturing, LLC — States this directly
“Smoker is for OUTDOOR HOUSEHOLD USE ONLY. Never use inside enclosed areas such as patios, garages, buildings or tents. ... Never use smoker as a heater (READ CARBON MONOXIDE HAZARD).”
The second independent manufacturer instruction — after SharkNinja's — restricting an ELECTRICALLY POWERED cooker to outdoors. Two makers of electric appliances, neither of whom benefits from the restriction, both refusing indoor use.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-20

Smoke source and energy source are physically separate on some cookers. The Ninja Woodfire draws 1760 W of mains electricity for heat and burns food-grade wood pellets in a separate smoke box for smoke, and its maker forbids putting charcoal, hardwood or liquid fuel in that box.

Well supported

SharkNinja Operating LLC — States this directly
“NEVER use heating fuel pellets, hardwood, charcoal, liquid fuels, or any other combustible material in the Smoker.”
A physically separate smoke box, filled with a scoop, independent of the heating element.
The clearest demonstration in the catalogue that smoke source and energy source are different things: this appliance's heat is electrical and its smoke is wood, in two separate compartments, and the manufacturer's own warnings treat them as separate hazards.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
SharkNinja Operating LLC — States this directly
The Ninja Woodfire Pro XL runs on 120 V, 60 Hz mains electricity at 1760 watts, requires a 15-amp circuit, and requires any extension cord to be outdoor-rated and marked as suitable for use with outdoor appliances.
Where it applies:
A US-market model. 120 V is not the UK supply, so the UK model differs.
1760 W of mains electricity is the ENERGY source. The wood pellets are not.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13

Carbon monoxide — read this first

Oklahoma Joe's instructs that its smoker be used only in a well-ventilated space and never in an enclosed one — naming a carport, garage, porch, covered patio or any overhead structure — and warns that burning charcoal indoors can kill because it gives off odourless carbon monoxide.

Worth a rule of its own for one word: COVERED. Readers treat 'outdoors' and 'not indoors' as the same instruction, and a covered patio passes the second test while failing the first. This manufacturer refuses overhead structures of any kind, which is the version of the rule that matches how people actually shelter a long cook from the rain — and a smoker is run for ten hours, in weather, by somebody who would like to stand somewhere dry.

Where this comes from

A charcoal fire that appears extinguished can retain heat in unconsumed embers for up to 24 hours and can flare again when fresh air reaches it, which is why spent fuel is a fire risk long after a cook has finished.

Well supported

Oklahoma Joe's (Char-Broil, LLC) — States this directly
“After a charcoal fire appears extinguished, unconsumed embers can retain heat for up to 24 hours, and if exposed to fresh air, can burst into flame unexpectedly.”
The figure:
Twenty-four hours is a longer interval than any other document in this catalogue gives for a dead-looking fire, and it is a manufacturer stating it about its own charcoal appliance.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-20

Carbon monoxide — read this first

Never bring a barbecue indoors, into a tent or into a garage while it is cooling. A finished barbecue is still producing carbon monoxide and can still start a fire.

Every other enclosed-space rule in this catalogue is phrased around USING a barbecue, and this is the case none of them reaches: the cook is over, the coals look dead, it is raining, and the obvious thing to do with a hot metal box is put it somewhere out of the way. Carbon monoxide has no smell and smouldering charcoal produces it for hours. RoSPA states the cooling case explicitly, which no source BBQHQ had previously read does.

Where this comes from

A barbecue must not be brought indoors while it is cooling, as well as never being used indoors, because a cooling barbecue can still cause a fire or carbon-monoxide exposure.

Well established

Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) — States this directly
“Never use barbecues or patio heaters inside, and do not bring them indoors while they're cooling, as this can cause a fire or carbon monoxide exposure”
The cooling clause is the new part. BBQHQ has always held 'never indoors' from several authorities. None of them addressed the barbecue that is finished with, still warm, and put in the garage or the porch out of the rain — which is the disposal habit that kills people, because a cooling firebox is still producing carbon monoxide.
About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-21

Food safety is jurisdictional

There is no universal safe temperature, and BBQHQ deliberately holds no field that could contain one. Three authorities in the catalogue answer the same question differently, and all three are current official guidance where they apply:

Authority	Where	What it says
Food Standards Agency	GB-ENG, GB-WLS, GB-NIR	In the UK, food should reach 70 °C held for 2 minutes, or an equivalent time-and-temperature combination, at the slowest-heating point.
Food Standards Scotland	GB-SCT	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.
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service	US	In the United States, all poultry — whole, in portions, or ground — should reach a minimum internal temperature of 165 °F (74 °C).
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service	US	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.
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service	US	In the United States, ground beef should reach a minimum internal temperature of 160 °F (71 °C).
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service	US	The FDA Food Code requires a retail or food service business — a restaurant, caterer or shop — to cook non-intact and comminuted meat to 68 °C (155 °F) held for 17 seconds, or an equivalent combination. This is a requirement on businesses under inspection and is not the guidance published to people cooking at home.
New Zealand Food Safety / Ministry for Primary Industries	NZ	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.
Health Canada	CA	In Canada, whole poultry should reach 82 °C (180 °F) and poultry pieces — breasts, legs, thighs and wings — 74 °C (165 °F). Ground poultry and stuffing cooked in poultry are also 74 °C.
Health Canada	CA	In Canada, ground beef, veal and lamb — including burgers, meatballs and sausages — should reach 71 °C (160 °F).
Health Canada	CA	In Canada, beef, veal and lamb pieces and whole cuts are given a safety figure for each doneness level: 63 °C (145 °F) medium-rare, 71 °C (160 °F) medium and 77 °C (170 °F) well done. Mechanically tenderized beef and veal should reach 63 °C and be turned at least twice during cooking.
Health Canada	CA	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.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand	AU, NZ	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.

Look closely at the UK and New Zealand rows. Both give an equivalent at 70 °C, and they differ — two minutes against three. Neither is a mistake. Averaging them would produce a figure with no authority behind it at all, which is why BBQHQ never does.

Where the rule is not a temperature

Some authorities answer “is this safe” without giving a figure at all, because for these foods the answer is about the CUT rather than about a core temperature. BBQHQ records them as rules in their own right, and does not attach a number that the authority did not publish.

UK: burgers are not steaks
Food Standards Agency · GB-ENG, GB-WLS, GB-NIR
A beef burger must be cooked through. Serving one rare or pink requires specific controls that ordinary domestic cooking does not provide, and which a whole cut of beef does not need.
Mincing takes bacteria that lived only on the outside of the meat and distributes them throughout, so the interior of a burger cannot be treated like the interior of a steak. This is a fact about the FORM, not about the animal.
- A food business operating a documented safe system for less than thoroughly cooked burgers. The FSA publishes separate guidance covering the controls required. These are business controls, not domestic ones.
England, Wales and NI: a seared steak may be served rare
Food Standards Agency · GB-ENG, GB-WLS, GB-NIR
The Food Standards Agency states that whole cuts of red meat such as steaks can be served pink, rare or bloody and will be safe to eat as long as the surface has been adequately seared. It gives no internal temperature for this case, so there is no figure here to cook to — the searing of the surface is the condition.
On an intact cut, contamination is on the surface, and searing addresses it there. Mincing, tenderising or rolling moves the surface into the middle, which is why the same authority requires those forms to be cooked through and why this rule stops at the whole cut.
- The cut has been minced, mechanically tenderised, rolled or stuffed. The permission does not apply. Those forms are covered by the FSA's cooking endpoint, which requires 70 °C for 2 minutes or an equivalent.
- The reader is in Scotland. Food Standards Scotland publishes separately and makes no equivalent statement. BBQHQ holds no Scottish whole-cut permission and does not extend this one across the border.
England, Wales and NI: pork is not served pink
Food Standards Agency · GB-ENG, GB-WLS, GB-NIR
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 FSA draws its line by species here rather than only by form, and pork falls on the restricted side of it whatever shape the cut is. This is the sentence that stops the red-meat permission being read as a general whole-cut permission.
Australia and New Zealand: steaks to preference
Food Standards Australia New Zealand · AU, NZ
FSANZ states that steaks can be cooked to preference, in the same guidance that requires chicken, sausages and hamburgers to reach 75 °C. No temperature is attached to the steak case.
FSANZ draws the line on form rather than species and states both halves explicitly, which almost no other authority does: a beef steak may be cooked to preference and a beef hamburger may not, because mincing has moved the surface into the middle.
UK: fish is done when it is opaque and flakes
Food Standards Agency · GB-ENG, GB-WLS, GB-NIR
In the UK, fish is cooked when the flesh has turned opaque — no longer transparent — and separates easily with a fork.
The Food Standards Agency gives fish a visual and textural endpoint rather than a temperature. That is a deliberate difference from its 70 °C guidance for meat and from the 145 °F figure American sources give for fish, and BBQHQ carries it as stated rather than converting it into a number the regulator did not publish.
UK: shellfish is done when the flesh is firm and opaque
Food Standards Agency · GB-ENG, GB-WLS, GB-NIR
In the UK, prawns, scallops, crab and lobster are cooked when the flesh has become firm and opaque.
Stated by the Food Standards Agency as a cue and not as a temperature. For a scallop in particular this is the more useful instrument: the window between firm and rubbery is measured in tens of seconds, and no duration survives a change in the heat of the fire.
UK: mussels, clams and oysters must open, and the closed ones are thrown away
Food Standards Agency · GB-ENG, GB-WLS, GB-NIR
In the UK, clams, mussels and oysters open their shells during cooking, and any that do not open should be thrown away.
The only doneness signal in the BBQHQ catalogue that is mechanical rather than sensory, and the only one where the regulator also states what to do with the failures. Bivalves filter-feed, so raw or lightly cooked they can carry viruses and bacteria that thorough cooking destroys — which is why this is recorded as critical rather than as a matter of texture.
- The person eating is older, pregnant, has a weakened immune system, or is a young child The FSA advises avoiding raw or lightly cooked shellfish altogether in these groups, rather than relying on a cooking cue.

The Scottish row is the one that is missing, and its absence is a finding rather than an oversight. Food Standards Scotland’s barbecue guidance names chicken, pork, burgers, sausages and kebabs, and says nothing about whole cuts of beef or lamb. BBQHQ does not extend the FSA’s permission across the border on its behalf.

Safety

Food safety is jurisdictional

Where the rule is not a temperature

The kinds of hazard