Back again with another pink meat panic, sorry. Duck was the last one and I survived that thread.
Pork tenderloin, two of them, 140°F (60°C) for two hours, seared, sliced. Gorgeous. Juiciest pork I've ever made, and rosy pink all the way through. My wife took one look and put her fork down. She grew up with "pork must be white or you'll get worms" and honestly so did I, I just didn't say anything because I'd already eaten three slices.
So. Is pink pork at 140 actually fine, or have I been lucky? And if it's fine, why does everyone's mum say otherwise?
Your mum's rule was right for your mum's pork. The worms thing was trichinella and it's basically gone from commercially farmed pork in a lot of countries now, which is why the official numbers dropped years ago. Pink isn't the test, temperature and time is.
I do mine at 140 for two hours too. Never been ill, and I've been ill from plenty of other things.
My husband was the same. What landed with him wasn't me arguing, it was the probe thermometer. I put it in, showed him the number, then took it out and showed him again after the sear. Seeing an actual number seemed to make the colour matter less.
Still did his at 145 for the first month, mind.
#4October 10, 2026, 11:15 am Sammy, neither of you is wrong exactly, but your wife is answering an older question.
The current USDA guidance for whole cuts of pork, chops, loins and tenderloin, is 145°F (63°C) followed by a three minute rest, and they lowered it from 160°F (71°C) some years ago. Colour was never the real test; temperature and time are. Minced pork is a different matter and stays higher, for the same reason burgers do: grinding takes the surface to the middle.
At 140°F (60°C) you're a step below that, and the sous vide answer relies on time. Pasteurisation is a pairing of temperature and time, and at 140 a tenderloin held for long enough is in the same place as one that briefly touched a higher number. Two hours for a normal tenderloin is a sensible hold: the published pasteurisation tables count from the bag going in cold and already allow for heating up, and for meat about 4 cm thick at 140 they come out at around two hours, a bit longer for a thick one. Please don't shave below 140 for pork with a long hold; that's the top edge of the danger zone and it's not a setting to get creative with.
Two practical rules. Anyone at your table who is pregnant, very young, elderly or immunocompromised gets theirs at 145 or above, no debate. And if your wife would simply rather eat it at 145, that's a perfectly good tenderloin too, just a little firmer. The time and temperature reasoning is laid out in the food safety guide, and pork sits in the times and temperatures chart at 140 to 145.
Bagging one at 145 and one at 140 in the same bath is my household compromise. Bath at 140 for the first two hours, pull one, turn it up to 145 for the second. Everyone's happy and I get the pink one.
Update. Showed her the chef's post and the USDA number, and we've settled on 145 for her and 140 for me, Mike's two-stage trick. She tried a slice of mine "for science" and admitted it was nicer. She will not be admitting that in public.
There's now a proper tenderloin guide on the site as well, which I've sent to my mother.
