United States Food and Drug Administration

Authority

Official guidance

Territories

US

Primacy

primary

Commercial interest

none

Retrieved

2026-08-13

State

Read and citable

Original document

Section 3-401.11(A)(2) requires 68 °C (155 °F) for 17 seconds for non-intact and comminuted meats, with 63 °C for 3 minutes, 66 °C for 1 minute and 70 °C instantaneously given as equivalents in the same chart. Two things about the document are as important as the figure. First, its scope: it is FDA's model code for the RETAIL segment, defined as 'those establishments or locations in the food distribution chain where the consumer takes possession of the food'. Second, its standing, which it states about itself — 'neither federal law nor federal regulation and is not preemptive'. Note also that the Code's own instantaneous equivalent for this category is 158 °F, which is BELOW the 160 °F FSIS gives consumers: the consumer figure is the more conservative of the two, which is the opposite of what the bare numbers suggest.

Safety, Technical, Terminology

• Explicitly not culinary practice: A regulatory cooking requirement for food businesses is not advice about how anything should taste, and the Code makes no culinary claim.

• “68oC (155oF) for 17 seconds or the temperature specified in the following chart that corresponds to the holding time for RATITES, and nonINTACT MEATS”

  FDA Food Code 2022 section 3-401.11(A)(2) requires ratites, non-intact meats and comminuted fish and game to be cooked to 68 °C (155 °F) for 17 seconds, or to an equivalent combination from the accompanying chart.

  A time-and-temperature PAIR, not a point. The same chart gives 63 °C for 3 minutes, 66 °C for 1 minute and 70 °C instantaneously as equivalents.

  Form:

  Applies to non-intact and comminuted meat, which is the category ground beef falls in.

  Addressed to food establishments operating a monitored process, not to a person cooking at home.

• “The retail segment includes those establishments or locations in the food distribution chain where the consumer takes possession of the food.”

  The FDA Food Code is a model code for the retail segment of the food industry, which it defines as those establishments or locations in the food distribution chain where the consumer takes possession of the food.

  What it covers:

  Defines who the Code instructs. This is the fact that separates it from consumer guidance rather than putting it in competition with it.

• “The model Food Code is neither federal law nor federal regulation and is not preemptive.”

  The FDA states that the model Food Code is neither federal law nor federal regulation and is not preemptive; it is advice written for adoption by state, local, tribal and federal jurisdictions.

  A model for adoption. What binds a given establishment is whichever edition its own jurisdiction adopted, which may not be this one.

• “Holding time may include postoven heat rise.”

  FDA Food Code §3-401.11(B) sets out a time-and-temperature table for whole meat roasts including beef, lamb and pork, in which 62.8 °C (145 °F) corresponds to a holding time of four minutes, and 54.4 °C (130 °F) to 112 minutes. The Code notes that the holding time may include post-oven heat rise, and the Annex states that the source of these parameters is USDA/FSIS Appendix A.

  Safety regime:

  Retail and food service. The Food Code binds food establishments and states of itself that it is neither federal law nor federal regulation.

  What it covers:

  Whole meat roasts only. Intact meat that is not a roast — a steak — sits under §3-401.11(A)(1) at 145 °F for 15 seconds, and the separate table at §3-401.11(A)(2) puts 145 °F at THREE minutes for non-intact and comminuted meats.

  This is a documented twin for Clemson's four-minute figure and it is not evidence that Clemson took it from here. The Code contains both three and four minutes at 145 °F for different food classes, so the number alone cannot identify which row anybody was restating — and Clemson applies its four minutes to steaks, which no row of this table covers.

• “At 57°C (135°F) or above, except that roasts cooked to a temperature and for a time specified in ¶ 3-401.11(B) or reheated as specified in ¶ 3-403.11(E) may be held at a temperature of 54oC (130oF) or above”

  FDA Food Code §3-501.16(A)(1) requires time/temperature control for safety food to be maintained at 57 °C (135 °F) or above, except that roasts cooked or reheated as specified may be held at 54 °C (130 °F) or above.

  Safety regime:

  Retail and food service. Same instrument and same standing as the 155 °F ground-beef figure: a model code, neither federal law nor federal regulation.

  Where it applies:

  United States.

  57 °C is the lowest of the three floors BBQHQ holds, six degrees below England's 63 °C. Three regulators, three figures, none of them an error — the same shape as the cooking endpoints.

• The FDA Food Code 2022 requires food businesses to cook non-intact and comminuted meat to 68 °C (155 °F) for 17 seconds, or an equivalent time-and-temperature combination. It is a model code for the retail segment, is not federal law, and does not replace the consumer guidance USDA FSIS publishes.

If this source changes, these are the claims that need rechecking. That is the point of recording provenance per claim rather than per page.