Guidance summary

Purpose

This guidance gives advice to food businesses and local authorities on controls and safe systems which can reduce the risks associated with less than thoroughly cooked (LTTC) beef burgers, sometimes referred to as rare, pink or lightly cooked beef burgers. 

Legal status

This document contains Regulatory Compliance (i.e., how to comply with regulatory requirements) and Best Practice Guidance (for example, helpful examples of approaches you might employ, but which you are not legally required to follow)

Who is this publication for?

This guidance is for:

• food businesses serving LTTC beef burgers
• LA officers enforcing food hygiene official controls 
•  the guidance may also be of interest to manufacturers, processors and distributors of beef, minced beef and beef burgers intended to be less than thoroughly cooked

Which UK countries does this guidance apply to?

• England
• Wales
• Northern Ireland

Review date

We will review this guidance before June 2025

Key words

1. food law
2. monitoring and controls 
3. hygiene and food safety 
4. less than thoroughly cooked beef burgers
5. burgers
6. meat and livestock

Contacts

We welcome your feedback on this guidance. Please contact us by submitting an online enquiry if you are a business. LAs should use the normal procedures to contact the FSA, following the agreed hierarchy of enquiries which can be found on the smarter communications platform.

Downloading this guidance

You can:

• use the ‘View as PDF’ option at the top of each page to download individual pages of this guidance
• use the 'View entire guide as PDF’ option placed at the bottom of each page to download the entire guidance as one document

Revision history

• May 2023 -Change of title and guidance amended to be clearer and easier to understand. Advice to buy minced beef and beef burgers from specifically approved premises added.
• January 2022- Guidance amended to be easier to understand. Advice to buy minced beef and beef burgers from specifically approved premises added. Change of format from a PDF document to HTML webpages for accessibility.
• June 2018 - Revision to consumer messaging
• May 2016 - Original guidance published