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Fish internal temperatures

Fish internal temperatures

50°
Salmon, medium rare · 122°F
63°
Cooked fish · 145°F
Tuna, seared rare
115 °F. Centre near raw. Sashimi grade.
46 °C
Salmon, medium rare
122 °F. Soft, deep orange middle.
50 °C
Salmon, medium
131 °F. Slightly translucent at the centre.
55 °C
Salmon, cooked through
145 °F. Firm, opaque, flakes under a fork.
63 °C
Whitefish (cod, haddock, pollock)
145 °F. Flakes cleanly. No rarer version.
63 °C
Reheated cooked fish
165 °F. The number for any leftover.
74 °C

The internal temperature cooked fish is safe at, and the lower temperatures salmon and tuna are usually served at, in Celsius and Fahrenheit.

Cook to temperature, not to timeFish is cooked at 63 °C / 145 °F under FDA and food safety guidance, measured at the thickest part, and that number applies to every fin fish on this chart. Salmon is commonly served at 50 to 55 °C, medium rare to medium, and that is a personal risk decision rather than a recommendation. Tuna is usually seared rare with the centre left close to raw, which relies on sashimi grade fish or fish that has been properly frozen. Anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immunocompromised should cook fish to 63 °C.

More fish times

Common questions

What temperature is fish cooked at?

63 °C / 145 °F at the thickest part. That is the FDA and food safety agency figure and it covers every fin fish, whatever the species and whatever the method. At that point the proteins have set, the flesh is opaque and it flakes apart under light pressure. Anyone serving salmon or tuna below it is trading risk for texture, and that trade belongs to the person eating rather than to a chart.

Why is salmon served pink inside when cod never is?

Fat, and then habit. Salmon carries roughly 12 g of fat per 100 g right through the muscle and stays moist at low temperatures, so a fillet at 50 to 55 °C reads as silky rather than raw, and restaurants have served it that way for decades. Cod has under 1 g per 100 g. Undercooked, it is slippery and glassy rather than pleasant, so no low temperature tradition ever grew around it. Haddock and pollock behave the same way.

Is rare tuna safe?

It depends on the fish, not on the pan. A seared steak spends 60 seconds a side over high heat, so the middle barely rises above fridge temperature and nothing in there is killed by cooking. The 46 °C in the chart is a ceiling rather than a target. Safety comes from sourcing sashimi grade tuna or tuna that has been frozen hard enough to destroy parasites, which guidance puts at minus 20 °C for seven days. Domestic freezers sit near minus 18 °C and are not a substitute.

How do I check doneness without a probe?

Push a fork into the thickest part and twist it. Fish that is cooked separates into flakes with almost no resistance and looks solid white or solid pink inside rather than wet and glassy. That works well for cod, haddock and other whitefish, where the flake and the safe temperature arrive together. It is much less useful for salmon at 50 to 55 °C, where the centre is meant to stay translucent, and it tells you nothing at all about tuna. A probe thermometer costs about what two fillets cost.

Egg times come from the thermal-diffusion equation for a spherical egg published by Charles D. H. Williams (University of Exeter), calibrated so a large fridge-cold egg at sea level matches the times cooks actually use. Size, starting temperature and altitude then follow from the physics. Treat the result as a very good starting point, not a guarantee, because pans, hobs and eggs all vary.