Sous Vide Pasteurization Calculator
FSIS hold times for poultry and meat cooked sous vide, from 136 F up to 165 F.
What it does
Sous vide makes pasteurization a dial instead of a guess: pick a temperature low enough to keep the texture you want, and hold long enough for the heat to do the microbiology. The tables behind this tool are the USDA FSIS Appendix A lethality tables for poultry and whole cuts of meat, the same tables commercial processors use.
Enter the food, its fat class, and your bath temperature. The tool returns the hold time down to the second, the temperature restated in both scales, and the log reduction the table certifies: 7-log for poultry, 6.5-log for whole cuts.
The defaults hold lean chicken at 145 F: the table calls for 8 min 24 sec once every part of the food, cold spot included, has reached temperature. Drop to 140 F and the time stretches to 25 min 12 sec; climb to 150 F and it shrinks to 2 min 42 sec. A whole-cut roast is a different table: beef at 130 F needs 112 minutes. The metric mirror, 62.8 C, rounds down to the 145 F entry for a built-in margin.
Reference data comes from FSIS Appendix A, the 2021 revision, with the seconds conversion cross-checked against Douglas Baldwin's widely used sous vide tables. Pasteurization timing is applied microbiology, geometry, and patience; the note under each result explains what the number does and does not cover.
How to use
- Choose Fahrenheit or Celsius.
- Pick the food and fat class; when unsure between the lean and fatty columns, take the longer one.
- Set the bath temperature inside the range the tables cover.
- Read the hold time, then check the temperature conversion line.
- Add the come-up time, which grows with thickness, before starting the clock mentally.
Formula
- food class
- Poultry or whole cuts, and the fat level that stands in for heat transfer speed.
- temperature
- The bath and therefore the cold-spot target, in whole degrees.
- hold time
- Minutes and seconds from the moment the cold spot reaches the target.
- log reduction
- The pathogen kill the table certifies: 7-log for poultry, 6.5-log for whole cuts.
The hold times assume every point of the food has reached the bath temperature at the moment the clock starts; bringing a thick roast up to temperature can take hours and dwarf the hold time, which is why the tables cannot be used as total cook times. Two more wrinkles: fat slows heat penetration, so the 12 % columns are longer than the 1 % columns for the same temperature, and the highest-temperature entries list no hold time at all because the reduction is met the instant the cold spot arrives. Times are conservative by construction: the tool rounds seconds up and metric temperatures down.
Worked example
Example: lean chicken at 145 F
Defaults: chicken at 1 % fat, 145 F bath.
- Find the 145 F row for chicken at 1 % fat in FSIS Appendix A.
- The table lists 504 seconds, which is 8 min 24 sec.
- The clock starts when the coldest spot reaches 145 F, not when the food enters the bath.
- The reduction certified is 7-log, the poultry standard.
- The motor on 62.8 C rounds to the 145 F entry, giving identical numbers with a margin.
Reference table
| Bath temperature | Hold time | Reduction |
|---|---|---|
| 136 F (57.8 C) | 63 min 18 sec | 7-log |
| 140 F (60 C) | 25 min 12 sec | 7-log |
| 145 F (62.8 C) | 8 min 24 sec | 7-log |
| 150 F (65.6 C) | 2 min 42 sec | 7-log |
| 155 F (68.3 C) | 45 sec | 7-log |
| 160 F (71.1 C) | 14 sec | 7-log |
| 165 F (73.9 C) | instant | 7-log |
Limits
- Hold times only: come-up time for thick pieces can be hours on its own.
- Assumes the appliance holds the set temperature accurately.
- Does not model shape, bones, stuffing, or irregular thickness.
- Not a recipe: texture and doneness are separate decisions.
Common mistakes
- Starting the clock when the food goes into the bath.
- Choosing the 1 % column for skin-on, ground, or fattier cuts.
- Treating the hold time as the total cook time for a roast.
- Trusting an uncalibrated circulator for low-temperature work.
- Serving immediately from a fast method without a quick chill plan for storage.
Try it yourself
Quick checks. Answers sit tucked under each question.
Lean chicken at 140 F?
25 min 12 sec at a 7-log reduction.
Lean chicken at 150 F?
2 min 42 sec, the same reduction, faster.
Whole cuts of beef at 130 F?
112 minutes, just under two hours, for a 6.5-log reduction.
Metric user holding chicken at 62.8 C?
Rounds to 145 F: 8 min 24 sec from the moment the cold spot hits temperature.
Questions
What does pasteurization mean in sous vide?
Holding the food long enough at the target temperature to hit a defined pathogen kill, like a 7-log reduction, validated by the FSIS lethality tables.
Is 136 F really enough for chicken?
If every part of the food stays at 136 F for the listed time, the table certifies the same reduction as hotter cooking; the low-temperature route is about time, not luck.
Why are the times in seconds?
At the top of the temperature range the hold time collapses: 14 sec at 160 F leaves no useful minute figure, so the tool keeps whole seconds.
What is come-up time?
How long the coldest spot takes to reach the bath temperature, driven by thickness and shape. It is separate from pasteurization and can be the longest part of the cook.
When do I use the 12 % fat column?
For fattier poultry, ground products, and anything skin-on, because fat insulates the cold spot and stretches the needed hold.
Can the timer really be instant at high temperatures?
The table lists no hold once the cold spot reaches that temperature, which for a thick piece is not instant at all: the clock of the cook is the come-up time.
Sources
- USDA FSIS Appendix A, lethality tables (2021, archived copy)
- Douglas Baldwin, A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking