NEWS FLASH – USDA Says You Don’t Have to Ruin Your Pork Anymore

We’ve struggled with what final internal temperature to recommend when people call asking about cooking kurobuta pork

On the one hand, the USDA recommended a final temperature of 165 for safety reasons.  On the other hand, an internal temperature of 165 is a horrible thing to do to some of the finest pork available.

On May 24th the USDA revised their recommendation for whole pork cuts (i.e. not ground pork).  The new guideline is 145 degrees, with at least a three minute rest between cooking and consuming. 

Read the Official USDA Press Release

The pro chef community has long regarded the FDA as a stick-in-the mud when it came to safety vs. quality on the cooking temperature issue (which is why you always see those tiny warnings on the bottom of restaurant menus warning about the risks of consuming “undercooked” meat & eggs).  They reliably err on the side of telling you what’s absolutely, positively bad bacteria free (insofar as you can be sure of anything).  So it’s a big deal that they’ve done the math and realized that any bad bacteria will be toast after that three minute rest. 

Besides, you were already resting your meat anyway…right?

(Why You Should Rest Meat)

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