Sous vide chicken temperature in a restaurant

The short answer

If you are cooking at home, the temperature on your circulator's chart is a choice between you and your dinner. In a restaurant, it is a rule. The FDA Food Code, which most US health departments base their rules on, sets one number for poultry:

FDA Food Code 2022, 3-401.11(A)(3)

74oC (165oF) or above for < 1 second (instantaneous) for POULTRY

That is 165°F in all parts of the chicken, no hold time needed. To serve a sous vide chicken breast cooked lower and held longer, the Food Code's route is a variance from your regulatory authority, based on a HACCP plan with scientific data behind your time and temperature. Your state may run an older edition or its own code, so check your state page and your local health department.

What you can serve, by route

The consumer advisory row is a gray zone for poultry, explained below. Whatever route you take, the health department that issues your permit has the final word.

Why home charts are lower

Killing bacteria is not a switch at one temperature. It is a rate: the hotter the food, the faster bacteria die. Hold the food at a lower temperature for longer and you can get the same kill. The Food Code says so itself:

FDA Food Code 2022, Annex 3, 3-401.11

Cooking is a scheduled process in which each of a series of continuous time/temperature combinations can be equally effective.

It even uses that idea for beef roasts. Under 3-401.11(B)(1), a roast held at 130°F for 112 minutes gets the same lethality as one held at 145°F for 4 minutes. Those are beef roast numbers, not chicken numbers, and the Food Code names where they come from:

FDA Food Code 2022, Annex 3, 3-401.11

The source of the time and temperature parameters is from the USDA/FSIS Appendix A.

FSIS (the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service) publishes similar time and temperature tables for poultry in its Cooking Guideline for Meat and Poultry Products (Revised Appendix A), 2021. Home sous vide charts are built on the same science. A restaurant can use it too, but only through a variance, because the Food Code does not include a poultry chart.

The Food Code rule, and why poultry gets the highest number

Poultry has its own line in 3-401.11, above fish, whole-muscle meat and ground meat. The public health reason in Annex 3 is blunt:

FDA Food Code 2022, Annex 3, 3-401.11

Greater numbers and varieties of pathogens generally are found on poultry than on other raw animal foods. Therefore, a higher temperature, in combination with the appropriate time is needed to cook these products.

FDA Food Code 2022, Annex 3, 3-401.11

The parameters for cooking poultry, wild game animal meats, stuffed food products, etc., of 74oC (165oF) or above for <1 second (instantaneous) yield greater than a 7D reduction.

A 7D reduction means the number of bacteria drops by a factor of ten, 7 times over. The quick 165°F rule gets there with no timer and no table, which is why it is the default for every kitchen, every cook, every shift.

The consumer advisory route: read it carefully

Section 3-401.11(D) lets a restaurant serve raw or undercooked animal food on the customer's request if certain conditions are met. Here is exactly what it covers:

FDA Food Code 2022, 3-401.11(D)

A raw animal FOOD such as raw EGG, raw FISH, raw-marinated FISH, raw MOLLUSCAN SHELLFISH, or steak tartare; or a partially cooked FOOD such as lightly cooked FISH, soft cooked EGGS, or rare MEAT other than WHOLE-MUSCLE, INTACT BEEF steaks as specified in ¶ (C) of this section, may be served or offered for sale upon CONSUMER request or selection in a READY-TO-EAT form if:

FDA Food Code 2022, 3-401.11(D)(1)

As specified under ¶¶ 3-801.11(C)(1) and (2), the FOOD ESTABLISHMENT serves a population that is not a HIGHLY SUSCEPTIBLE POPULATION;

FDA Food Code 2022, 3-401.11(D)(2)

The FOOD, if served or offered for service by CONSUMER selection from a children’s menu, does not contain COMMINUTED MEAT;

FDA Food Code 2022, 3-401.11(D)(3)

The CONSUMER is informed as specified under § 3-603.11 that to ensure its safety, the FOOD should be cooked as specified under ¶ (A) or (B) of this section; or

Three things to notice for chicken:

1. Poultry is not one of the examples. The list names eggs, fish, shellfish, steak tartare and rare meat. And in the Food Code, "meat" does not include poultry:

FDA Food Code 2022, 1-201.10(B)

"Meat" means the flesh of animals used as FOOD including the dressed flesh of cattle, swine, sheep, or goats and other edible animals, except FISH, POULTRY, and wild GAME ANIMALS

2. The list is not closed. It says "such as", so the text does not expressly shut poultry out. The menu advisory section, 3-603.11, covers any animal food served undercooked and names poultry in its reminder wording:

FDA Food Code 2022, 3-603.11(A)

if an animal FOOD such as beef, EGGS, FISH, lamb, milk, pork, POULTRY, or shellfish is served or sold raw, undercooked, or without otherwise being processed to eliminate pathogens

FDA Food Code 2022, 3-603.11(C)(2)

Consuming raw or undercooked MEATS, POULTRY, seafood, shellfish, or EGGS may increase your RISK of foodborne illness;

3. It is a disclosure, not a safety finding. The advisory route rests on an informed guest choosing undercooked food. It does not say the chicken is safe, and it is not a way to batch, bag and store chicken for service. Cook-chill in the bag under 3-502.12(D) requires the chicken to be:

FDA Food Code 2022, 3-502.12(D)(2)(b)

Cooked to heat all parts of the FOOD to a temperature and for a time as specified under ¶¶ 3-401.11 (A), (B), and (C),

FDA Food Code 2022, Annex 3, 3-401.11

The requirements specified under ¶ 3-401.11(D) acknowledge the rights of an informed consumer to order and consume foods as preferred by that consumer based on the consumer’s health status and understanding of the risks associated with eating raw or partially-cooked animal foods.

Highly susceptible populations: 165°F, full stop

A highly susceptible population is people more likely to get seriously ill from food (young children, older adults, people with weak immune systems) who are eating at a facility like these:

FDA Food Code 2022, 1-201.10(B)

Obtaining FOOD at a facility that provides services such as custodial care, health care, or assisted living, such as a child or adult day care center, kidney dialysis center, hospital or nursing home, or nutritional or socialization services such as a senior center.

The consumer advisory route requires a population that is not highly susceptible (3-401.11(D)(1)), and in these facilities 3-801.11(C) says this may not be served ready to eat:

FDA Food Code 2022, 3-801.11(C)(2)

A partially cooked animal FOOD such as lightly cooked FISH, rare MEAT, soft-cooked EGGS that are made from raw EGGS, and meringue;

ClearHACCP never offers a low-temperature poultry route, a raw option or an undercooked option to a kitchen that serves a highly susceptible population. The plan cooks chicken to 165°F.

The variance packet

This is the sentence that opens the door, verbatim:

FDA Food Code 2022, 3-401.11(D)(4)

The REGULATORY AUTHORITY grants a VARIANCE from ¶ (A) or (B) of this section as specified in § 8-103.10 based on a HACCP PLAN that: (a) Is submitted by the permit holder and approved as specified under § 8-103.11, (b) Documents scientific data or other information showing that a lesser time and temperature regimen results in a safe food, and (c) Verifies that equipment and procedures for food preparation and training of food employees at the food establishment meet the conditions of the VARIANCE.

Section 8-103.11 lists what goes in any variance request:

FDA Food Code 2022, 8-103.11(A)

A statement of the proposed VARIANCE of the Code requirement citing relevant Code section numbers;

FDA Food Code 2022, 8-103.11(B)

An analysis of the rationale for how the potential public health HAZARDS and nuisances addressed by the relevant Code sections will be alternatively addressed by the proposal;

FDA Food Code 2022, 8-103.11(C)

A HACCP PLAN if required as specified under ¶ 8-201.13(A) that includes the information specified under § 8-201.14 as it is relevant to the VARIANCE requested.

For sous vide chicken, a plan reviewer expects the packet to answer these questions:

Come-up time matters more at low temperatures, because the chicken spends longer warming through the range where bacteria grow. Annex 3 describes the risk for slow-cooked meat:

FDA Food Code 2022, Annex 3, 3-401.11

Heating deviations, which most often involve a slow heating come-up time (CUT) or an inordinate dwell time within the optimum temperature range for microorganism growth (e.g., product remains at temperatures between 50ºF and 130ºF for more than 6 hours) can foster the multiplication of many pathogens.

Common mistakes

• Setting the bath to 165°F and calling it done. The limit is the core of the thickest piece. Probe it.
• Using a home chart without a variance. It may be good science, but in a restaurant it is not your rule until your health department grants it.
• Overloading the bath. A crowded circulator drops temperature and stretches come-up time. Set a maximum load in the plan.
• Treating the menu advisory as a storage plan. Bagged chicken held for later service is cook-chill, and cook-chill needs a cook under 3-401.11(A) to (C) or a variance.
• Forgetting cooling. Chicken that is cooked, chilled in the bag and stored is cooled from 135°F to 70°F within 2 hours and to 41°F within 6 hours, logged.
• Not knowing who you serve. Catering for a care home or a day care? That kitchen is cooking for a highly susceptible population.

Not sure what your kitchen needs? The free checker gives you the Food Code section for your process in a minute, and the sous vide HACCP guide walks through the cook-chill rules line by line.

Frequently asked questions

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