Ken Keating
TVWBB Fan
The United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) states that poultry should be cooked 165 degrees throughout for safe eating. FSIS also publishes the Time-Temperature Tables for Ready to Each Poultry Projects. This table is available at ttp://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FSISNotices/RTE_Poultry_Tables.pdf . This table appears to be for markets selling rotisserie food and fast-food establishments. It states that for poultry, you need to obtain a 7.0 log reduction of Salmonella before the poultry is safe to eat. To accomplish this the publication shows minimum processing times after minimum temperature is reached. As and example, the following is shown for poultry with a fat content of 12%;
Temp Reached/Minimum Time for Chicken/Min Time for Turkey
140/ 35 Min / 33.7 Min
145/ 13 Min / 13.8 Min
150/ 4.2 Min/ 4.9 Min
155/ 54.4 Secs/ 1.3 Min
160/ 16.9 Secs/ 26.9 Secs
165/ <10 Secs/ <10 Secs
The above chart is interesting, because it appears that this allows poultry to be safely cooked at a lower temperature than 165 degrees depending of length of time that it remains at that temperature.
Can anyone in the food service industry comment on this and provide additional information? I’m curious about this for a couple of reasons:
First, I’ve been trying smo-fried turkeys lately and during the frying process the turkey temps can rise very quickly towards the end and overcook the turkey. The very outer layers of turkey reach 180-190 degrees before the interior portions reach 165 and thus the outer layers are somewhat dry. According to the tables, I should be able to pull the turkey off when the internal temps are 150 degrees and maintained for longer than 4.9 minutes. This would allow a reduced final temperature for the outer layers.
Second, when cooking chickens sometime I end up taking 15-20 minutes extra time to make sure that the minimum temperate is 160 degrees. I may have one location in the breast that seems to take forever to go from 155 to 160 degrees, and every 5 minutes it goes up only one degree. According to the chart I should have no worries as long as the minimum processing times are kept. Another example is cooking whole chickens on a BBQ temp at 225; this could take 4-5 hours for the chicken to reach 160. I no longer cook chicken at this temperature, but when I first started cooking I did and it took quite a while to cook whole chickens. This time could have been reduced as long as the minimum processing times are kept.
If anyone could expand on this publication and/or provide additional comments it would be greatly appreciated. I would like to experiment with slightly lower cooking temperatures of poultry, especially fried turkeys, but I want to make sure it’s done safely.
Thanks, Ken
Temp Reached/Minimum Time for Chicken/Min Time for Turkey
140/ 35 Min / 33.7 Min
145/ 13 Min / 13.8 Min
150/ 4.2 Min/ 4.9 Min
155/ 54.4 Secs/ 1.3 Min
160/ 16.9 Secs/ 26.9 Secs
165/ <10 Secs/ <10 Secs
The above chart is interesting, because it appears that this allows poultry to be safely cooked at a lower temperature than 165 degrees depending of length of time that it remains at that temperature.
Can anyone in the food service industry comment on this and provide additional information? I’m curious about this for a couple of reasons:
First, I’ve been trying smo-fried turkeys lately and during the frying process the turkey temps can rise very quickly towards the end and overcook the turkey. The very outer layers of turkey reach 180-190 degrees before the interior portions reach 165 and thus the outer layers are somewhat dry. According to the tables, I should be able to pull the turkey off when the internal temps are 150 degrees and maintained for longer than 4.9 minutes. This would allow a reduced final temperature for the outer layers.
Second, when cooking chickens sometime I end up taking 15-20 minutes extra time to make sure that the minimum temperate is 160 degrees. I may have one location in the breast that seems to take forever to go from 155 to 160 degrees, and every 5 minutes it goes up only one degree. According to the chart I should have no worries as long as the minimum processing times are kept. Another example is cooking whole chickens on a BBQ temp at 225; this could take 4-5 hours for the chicken to reach 160. I no longer cook chicken at this temperature, but when I first started cooking I did and it took quite a while to cook whole chickens. This time could have been reduced as long as the minimum processing times are kept.
If anyone could expand on this publication and/or provide additional comments it would be greatly appreciated. I would like to experiment with slightly lower cooking temperatures of poultry, especially fried turkeys, but I want to make sure it’s done safely.
Thanks, Ken