12.2 Consumer Advisories and Undercooked Foods
Key Takeaways
- Raw or undercooked animal foods require a consumer advisory under Food Code 3-603.11: a disclosure that identifies the animal food plus a reminder about increased risk, especially for vulnerable people.
- A menu asterisk with a footnote is the usual written method; a server’s spoken warning alone is not the advisory.
- Highly susceptible population facilities generally cannot serve raw or undercooked animal foods, and a consumer advisory cannot replace required cooking there.
- Children’s menus may not offer undercooked comminuted meat such as hamburgers; do not offer undercooked eggs on children’s menus.
- Unpasteurized juice that has not received a 5-log treatment needs the 21 CFR 101.17(g) warning; HSP operations cannot serve juice that bears that warning.
A guest who wants a mid-rare hamburger, eggs over easy, raw oysters, steak tartare, or sushi is asking for raw or undercooked animal food. That request does not erase Food Code 3-401.11. It changes the information the operation must give and, in some facilities, it is not allowed at all.
FDA Food Code 3-603.11 is the consumer-advisory rule. If an animal food such as beef, eggs, fish, lamb, milk, pork, poultry, or shellfish is served or sold raw, undercooked, or without a process that eliminates pathogens, the permit holder must inform consumers of the significantly increased risk. The tool is written: brochures, deli-case or menu advisories, label statements, table tents, placards, or other effective written means. A smile and “you sure?” from the server is not 3-603.11.
Disclosure Plus Reminder
The advisory has two parts. Both are required.
Disclosure identifies the animal food that is raw or undercooked, or that contains raw or undercooked ingredients. The Code allows a description (“oysters on the half shell (raw oysters),” “raw-egg Caesar salad,” “hamburgers (can be cooked to order)”) or an asterisk to a footnote that says the items are served raw or undercooked or may contain raw or undercooked ingredients.
Reminder tells the consumer that those foods increase the risk of foodborne illness. The usual footnote language is that consuming raw or undercooked meats, poultry, seafood, shellfish, or eggs may increase the risk of foodborne illness, especially if you have certain medical conditions. The Code also allows a shorter reminder that written information is available upon request, or a reminder without the medical-conditions clause. The exam still expects you to know the reminder is about increased risk, and that vulnerable people are called out in the common form.
A menu asterisk plus a footnote that does both jobs is the typical design. The asterisk sits on the animal food. The footnote carries disclosure and reminder. Do not hide the footnote in six-point type on the back of a wine list and call the duty done if a reasonable guest cannot find it.
| Part | What it must do | Typical menu form |
|---|---|---|
| Disclosure | Identify the animal food that is raw, undercooked, or made with raw/undercooked ingredients | Description on the line, or asterisk to a footnote that names those items |
| Reminder | State the increased risk of foodborne illness; common form mentions vulnerable people / certain medical conditions | Asterisk to a footnote with approved reminder language |
| Written means | Put both parts in writing | Menu, table tent, deli-case card, brochure, placard, label |
| Not a substitute | Does not replace 3-401.11 cooking in an HSP facility | No waiver, no spoken-only warning, no “adults only after 5 p.m.” shortcut |
3-603.11 excepts a narrow case: a whole-muscle, intact beef steak that meets 3-401.11(C) — labeled as whole-muscle intact beef and cooked on both the top and bottom to a 145°F surface with a cooked color change on all external surfaces. That surface-sear path is not a mid-rare hamburger, not mechanically tenderized beef, and not injected beef. Do not stretch the exception.
Who Cannot Use the Advisory as a Way Out
Highly susceptible population (HSP) facilities — hospitals, nursing homes, many childcare operations, and similar settings — generally cannot serve raw or undercooked animal foods. Food Code 3-801.11 lists raw fish, raw-marinated fish, raw molluscan shellfish, steak tartare, lightly cooked fish, rare meat, and soft-cooked eggs made from raw eggs among the foods that may not be served or offered in ready-to-eat form. A consumer advisory does not override 3-801.11. You cannot post a footnote in a hospital cafeteria and send out mid-rare burgers. You cannot let a nursing-home brunch run “eggs any style” because a waiver is on the tray ticket.
Children’s menus have their own limit. 3-401.11(D)(2) says that if the food is offered from a children’s menu, it does not contain comminuted meat that is raw or undercooked. Undercooked hamburgers, sliders, and other ground-meat items do not belong on a children’s menu, advisory or not. Do not offer undercooked eggs on children’s menus either. Young children are a highly susceptible group. Soft-cooked eggs and undercooked burgers are the two items exam writers use to test this.
Unpasteurized Juice
Juice that has not been processed to achieve a 5-log pathogen reduction is not a “fun brunch add-on.” Packaged juice that has not been treated must bear the 21 CFR 101.17(g) warning: the product has not been pasteurized and may contain harmful bacteria that can cause serious illness in children, the elderly, and persons with weakened immune systems. Food Code 3-404.11 is the treating-juice section. 3-801.11(A) then bars HSP operations from serving prepackaged juice that carries that warning, and it requires unpackaged juice prepared on-site in an HSP facility to be produced under a HACCP plan. A consumer advisory for oysters is not the juice warning, and the juice warning is not a license to serve unpasteurized cider in a daycare.
The Advisory Never Replaces Cooking for HSP
Write this down as a PIC rule: disclosure + reminder informs a general-population guest. It does not cook the food. It does not make an illegal offer legal in an HSP kitchen. Active managerial control means the menu is built so HSP service never depends on a footnote. If the facility serves a highly susceptible population, cook animal foods to the 3-401.11 temperatures in 12.1 and keep raw-bar and undercooked-egg items off the line.
| Setting or offer | Allowed with a proper advisory? | Not allowed |
|---|---|---|
| General-population restaurant, mid-rare burger or eggs over easy | Yes, if disclosure + reminder are in writing | Spoken-only warning; missing identification of the food |
| Raw oysters, steak tartare, sushi / raw-marinated fish | Yes in a non-HSP operation with disclosure + reminder | HSP facility service of those foods |
| Children’s menu hamburger cooked mid-rare | No | Undercooked comminuted meat on a children’s menu |
| Children’s menu eggs over easy | Do not offer | Soft-cooked eggs aimed at children |
| Hospital, nursing home, many childcare operations | Cook to 3-401.11; no raw/undercooked animal-food service | Advisory, waiver, or “patient requested it” as a substitute |
| Unpasteurized juice | Warning label for allowed general-population packaged juice | HSP service of juice that bears the 101.17(g) warning |
Scenario: Brunch Menu, Eggs Any Style
A downtown café prints “Eggs any style — scrambled, over easy, sunny-side up, poached.” That line is an offer to serve undercooked eggs unless the kitchen refuses those doneness requests. For a general-population café, 3-603.11 requires a disclosure that identifies the eggs that may be undercooked and a reminder that raw or undercooked eggs increase the risk of foodborne illness. Put an asterisk on “eggs any style” and a footnote that does both jobs. Train servers not to treat a verbal check as the advisory.
If the same menu is used in a hospital or nursing home, the answer changes. Those eggs that stay runny are a 3-801.11 prohibited offer. Cook eggs to the legal temperature for the service pattern — 145°F / 15 seconds when broken to order for immediate service, 155°F / 17 seconds when pooled or held — and delete “any style” as a raw-yolk option. An asterisk cannot replace that cook.
If the café also has a children’s brunch with “mini burgers” and “kids’ eggs,” do not let those items be ordered undercooked. Comminuted meat on a children’s menu cannot be served raw or undercooked. Keep kids’ eggs fully cooked.
Exam Traps
- Spoken warning equals advisory is wrong; 3-603.11 is written disclosure plus reminder.
- Asterisk without identifying the food is a reminder with no disclosure, or decoration.
- Advisory in a hospital does not authorize mid-rare meat or runny eggs.
- Children’s sliders cooked pink fail 3-401.11(D)(2).
- Whole-muscle intact steak exception equals any steak or any burger stretches 3-401.11(C) past the labeled, surface-seared intact-beef case.
- Juice warning and oyster advisory are interchangeable is wrong; juice uses 21 CFR 101.17(g) / 3-404.11, and HSP cannot serve the warned juice.
- “Adults can order it for a child” does not put undercooked comminuted meat back on a children’s menu.
A restaurant wants to serve hamburgers cooked mid-rare, oysters on the half shell, and steak tartare. What must the consumer advisory include under Food Code 3-603.11?
A brunch menu lists “eggs any style,” including over-easy and sunny-side up. What does the Food Code require in a general-population restaurant?
A hospital cafeteria manager wants to add mid-rare hamburgers if guests initial a waiver. What is the correct action?