Medium rare pork chop

For many years, it has been recommended that pork be well cooked and showing no sign of pink before eating.

Medium rare pork steak

This was even advised by the USDA up until 2011. However things have changed and pink pork is well and truly on the menu.

So how rare can we cook pork? Pork can now be safely eaten when served medium rare, or ‘pink’.

This is achieved when an internal cooking thermometer reaches 145 °F in the thickest part, and then the meat is left to rest for 3 minutes after cooking.

We will now look at the reasons for this change, and see how we can begin to enjoy our pork being succulent and juicy!

Shouldn’t Pork Be Cooked Well Done?

Back in the day when I was a young man growing up and then learning to cook, I always remember my parents saying “make sure there is no pink showing” when pork was being cooked for dinner.

For the last 30 years I continued to follow that voice in my head whenever I cooked pork, for fear of getting sick and giving my Mom the chance of saying “I told you so”.

Even as a butcher, and learning that times have changed and it is no longer necessary to cook t

is it ok to eat medium rare pork

is it safe to eat raw pork