Only 13 percent of adults aged 18-34 who cook hamburgers or poultry burgers, many of whom may prepare food for small children at home, use an instant-read thermometer to determine doneness when cooking hamburgers or poultry burgers. Seventy-eight percent of this age group rely on sight, which is not an accurate indicator of doneness, to determine if the burger is cooked properly.
In terms of proper cooking temperatures, only one in five US adults (20 percent) knows a hamburger should be cooked to 160°F to ensure it is safe to consume, while 41 percent mistakenly believe hamburgers should be cooked to a temperature less than 160°F, according to the poll.