Is Sous Vide Safe? Low-Temperature Pasteurization Explained

The food safety establishment built its temperature rules around conventional cooking, where temperatures are imprecise and timing is variable. Sous vide changes that completely. And understanding why some of its temperatures look wrong, but aren’t, requires understanding what pasteurization actually is.

Pasteurization Is Time Times Temperature

The 165°F rule for chicken exists because that temperature kills Salmonella essentially instantly. It’s a practical shorthand for conventional cooking where home cooks need a simple, oven-or-probe-readable target.

But instant kill at 165°F and extended exposure at 140°F both achieve the same microbiological result: a 7-log10 reduction in Salmonella (a reduction of 10 million to 1 in bacterial population). The critical difference is that sous vide can hold temperature with precision. A conventional oven or skillet can’t guarantee the interior of chicken has been at exactly 140°F for 30 minutes. A sous vide circulator can.

Douglas Baldwin, a mathematician who applied food science to sous vide cooking in his widely cited practical guide, built time-temperature tables for pasteurization based on the FDA Food Code and USDA FSIS data. His tables show, for example, that chicken breast at 140°F needs 30 minutes to achieve pasteurization, while chicken at 150°F needs only 5 minutes.

The tables aren’t guesses. They’re derived from the same science used to write the 165°F rule, just expressed as the continuous relationship between time and temperature rather than a single-point threshold.

Whole Muscle vs Ground vs Poultry

The safety math differs by protein, and it matters to get this right.

Whole muscle beef. E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella on steaks and roasts are surface contaminants. They don’t penetrate intact muscle tissue to any meaningful depth. This is why a medium-rare steak at 130-135°F is considered safe despite the pink interior: the surface has been seared to well above 160°F and the bacteria were there, not inside. For sous vide whole muscle beef, surface searing before and/or after the water bath handles the pathogen question.

Ground meat. When you grind meat, you distribute surface bacteria throughout. Ground beef must reach 160°F throughout. Don’t apply sous vide medium-rare steak logic to sous vide burgers.

Poultry. Chicken and turkey carry Salmonella and Campylobacter not just on the surface but in the flesh. Full pasteurization throughout the meat is needed. At 140°F, that requires 30 minutes at the thickest point, measured after equilibration at that temperature. The pink color of properly pasteurized 140°F chicken surprises people. It’s safe.

The Anaerobic Vacuum Problem

Here’s the sous vide-specific risk that doesn’t apply to conventional cooking.

Clostridium botulinum produces its toxin only in anaerobic conditions. A sous vide bag with most oxygen removed is anaerobic. At the cooking temperatures used in sous vide (typically 130-185°F), vegetative C. botulinum cells are killed. But C. botulinum spores survive temperatures up to 212°F. These spores can germinate if the bag is held warm after cooking.

The problem scenario is straightforward: you finish a 6-hour brisket sous vide at 1 PM, decide to serve it at dinner, and leave the sealed bag on the counter at 80°F for several hours. Spores survived the cook, the bag is anaerobic, and the temperature is in the growth range. This is the setup for botulism toxin production.

The solution is equally straightforward: serve immediately after cooking, or perform a rapid chill. To rapid-chill, transfer the sealed bag from the water bath to an ice bath (50% ice, 50% water) and leave it there until the bag temperature is below 40°F. That process typically takes 30 to 90 minutes depending on bag thickness. Then refrigerate.

Don’t leave sealed sous vide bags at warm temperatures after cooking. That’s the whole rule.

Extended Cooks and the Edge Cases

Short sous vide cooks (under 4 hours) are straightforward. Extended cooks (8, 12, or 24+ hours for collagen-heavy cuts) introduce a different consideration: even at pasteurization temperatures, given enough time, the texture of meat changes in ways that matter for quality, not safety.

For very long cooks, the key variable is that the meat should be at or above pasteurization temperature throughout the hold. If the circulator maintains 140°F for 24 hours, the meat is continuously at a pasteurizing temperature. This is safe. It produces extraordinarily tender short ribs.

What’s not safe: starting a long cook in a water bath that doesn’t maintain temperature reliably, or leaving a cooked product in the bath unmonitored as temperature drifts.

What About Eggs?

Pasteurizing eggs sous vide is possible and useful. The target is 135°F for 2 hours, which achieves a 5-log10 reduction in Salmonella Enteritidis without fully cooking the white or yolk.

At 135°F for 2 hours, you get a pasteurized egg that still behaves largely like a raw egg in texture. The white is slightly more opaque and slightly thicker. This approach is appropriate for recipes calling for raw eggs where pasteurization matters (Caesar dressing, aioli, some desserts).

Below 135°F, pasteurization of the yolk takes much longer. Above 140°F, the white begins to cook noticeably. The 135°F / 2-hour target is the practical sweet spot.

The Bottom Line on Risk

Sous vide, done with attention to time-temperature tables and immediate post-cook handling, is a safe cooking method. The science is not experimental. The time-temperature relationships come from the same USDA and FDA data that underpin conventional food safety standards.

The specific risks: using wrong time-temperature combinations, leaving cooked bags warm, and conflating whole-muscle logic with ground meat. Avoid those three and you’re cooking as safely as any other method.