Food Standards Australia New Zealand

Authority

Official guidance

Territories

AU, NZ

Primacy

primary

Commercial interest

none

Retrieved

2026-08-13

State

Read and citable

Original document

One of the most useful safety sources in this catalogue, for two reasons. First, it draws the form line explicitly and in the reader's own words: chicken, sausages and hamburgers to 75 °C, while 'steaks can be cooked to preference'. Second, its territory is Australia AND New Zealand, so a New Zealand reader is covered by both this and MPI — two competent authorities, overlapping, publishing figures that are close but not identical. That is exactly the case a country-keyed safety model cannot represent.

Safety

• Explicitly not culinary practice: FSANZ writes food standards. Its note that steaks may be cooked to preference is a statement about where its rule stops, not culinary guidance.

• “Cook chicken, sausages and hamburgers thoroughly, to an internal temperature of 75oC - check the temperature with a food thermometer.”

  Food Standards Australia New Zealand advises cooking chicken, sausages and hamburgers thoroughly to an internal temperature of 75 °C, checked 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.

• “Steaks can be cooked to preference”

  In the same guidance, FSANZ states that steaks can be cooked to preference — drawing the line between processed forms that need a temperature and whole cuts that do not.

  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.

• “never place cooked meat back on the trays that held the raw meat”

  FSANZ advises using separate equipment for raw and cooked meats and never placing cooked meat back on the trays that held it raw, and discarding left-over food unless refrigeration is available to cool it rapidly.

  The single most common barbecue food-safety failure, and one that no cooking temperature prevents.

  Where it applies:

  Australia and New Zealand.

• 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.
• 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.

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