Wild game cooking sits at the intersection of hunting, food handling, and household taste. Survey results from Scotland and Purdue University show how people prepare and consume game, while U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and CDC figures put the practice in a broader outdoor and food-safety context. The measurements below retain their original geography and period, with 2022 figures identified as 2022 data and older disease-surveillance results kept separate.
Contents
- How people eat and prepare wild game
- Who hunts and where game comes from
- Household, restaurant, and access patterns
- The scale of hunting and big-game activity
- Cooking temperatures for venison and other game
- Jerky, storage, and processing limits
- Trichinellosis and wild-game cooking risk
How people eat and prepare wild game
The clearest preference signal in the Scotland consumer research is venison. In that survey, 94% said venison was their wild-game meat of choice when eating out. Preparation preferences were also specific: 67% preferred pan-frying venison. These figures describe reported consumer preferences, not a universal best method.
Storage commonly preceded cooking. Eighty percent said it was normal to hang, store, or freeze wild-game meat before preparation, and 70% said freezing meat after preparation, before and/or after cooking, was common. Portion expectations were relatively close to those for familiar meats: 66% thought wild-game portions should match chicken, pork, or beef portions, while 25% thought portions should be slightly smaller.
The same Scotland research found that 85% considered wild-game meat suitable and safe for all household members, including children and older people. That is a perception measure. It should be read alongside the separate cooking-temperature and disease-surveillance figures below, which measure guidance or reported illness rather than opinion.
Purdue University outdoor-enthusiast research points to a preparation knowledge gap among some consumers. Thirty-nine percent said they did not know how to cook wild game meat, 22% felt they could not safely cook it, and 30% of restaurant-oriented wild-game consumers disliked handling it raw. One quarter said they ate game meat only for special occasions. Together, the results suggest that interest in game can coexist with limited confidence in kitchen handling.
Who hunts and where game comes from
The Purdue survey measured outdoor participation among respondents rather than all Americans. Sixty-three percent regularly fished, 27% regularly hunted, and 79% regularly participated in other outdoor activities such as camping or hiking. Thirty-four percent reported only non-hunting, non-fishing outdoor activities, 25% regularly participated in fishing and other activities, and 18% regularly participated in all outdoor activities in the survey.
Past participation was broader than regular participation. Forty-eight percent had never hunted and 6% had never fished. Twenty-one percent had hunted in the last year, compared with 53% who had fished; over the past five years, 30% had hunted and 70% had fished.
Among people who had hunted at some point, 73% reported hunting on privately held land and 52% on public land. Private-land hunting included land owned by the hunter for 28%, land owned by family for 38%, land owned by friends for 52%, and a private hunting operation for 17%. These categories can overlap, so they should not be added into a single total.
The household role of hunted meat was substantial in the Purdue results. Eighty-one percent said hunted meat was consumed by someone in their household, 39% gave hunted meat to a friend or family member outside the household, and 25% donated hunted meat to charity.
Household, restaurant, and access patterns
Home consumption was especially common among regular hunters. Seventy-nine percent of regular hunters were most likely to consume wild game meat at home, compared with 33% of non-regular hunters. Nineteen percent of respondents were more likely to consume wild game meat in a restaurant.
The survey also separated non-consumption from a single explanation. Thirty-five percent said they did not consume wild game meat. Among non-consumers, 32% said they lacked access to it, 16% said it was not safe to consume, 55% said they did not hunt, and 53% said they did not like wild game meat. Because respondents could report different reasons, these percentages describe distinct reported barriers rather than a complete market breakdown.
Perceptions of processing safety differed by hunting status. Fifty-three percent of regular hunters said meat processed at a federally or state-inspected facility was safer than home processing, versus 42% of non-hunters. This contrast matters for readers deciding whether a preparation question is really a cooking question, or whether it begins earlier with cutting, chilling, and processing.
| Purdue survey measure | Reported share |
|---|---|
| Regular hunters most likely to eat wild game at home | 79% |
| Non-regular hunters most likely to eat wild game at home | 33% |
| Respondents more likely to eat wild game in a restaurant | 19% |
| Respondents who did not know how to cook wild game | 39% |
| Respondents who felt unable to cook wild game safely | 22% |
| Restaurant-oriented consumers who disliked handling raw game | 30% |
These figures help explain why recipes that clearly state handling steps can serve both experienced hunters and occasional consumers. They do not establish that one format or cooking method causes safer behavior.
The scale of hunting and big-game activity
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 2022 National Survey reported 14.4 million U.S. residents hunted in 2022. Hunters took 241 million days and spent $45.2 billion. In the same national recreation reporting, 39.9 million people fished, 148.3 million participated in wildlife watching, and wildlife-related recreation spending reached $394.8 billion. The survey also recorded 1.0 billion days spent on fishing and hunting combined.
Big-game hunting formed a large part of hunting activity. The FWS Big-Game Hunters report counted 11.5 million big-game hunters in 2022. They spent $15.6 billion on trip and equipment expenditures, equal to 49% of total hunting trip and equipment expenditures. Average trip and equipment spending was $1,352 per big-game hunter. Big-game hunters logged 134.7 million total days, or 12 days per hunter, and took 92 million trips. The report summarized this as 8 in 10 hunters hunting big game and about 1 in every 23 Americans age 16 and over hunting big game.
The supplied FWS demographic table reported 7% participation among men age 16 and over in 2022, versus 2% among women. Among big-game hunters, 80% were men and 19% were women. The table reported 5% participation among adults ages 18–24 and 4% among adults age 65 and older. It also reported 4% of households under $50,000 and 3% of households from $50,000 to $99,999 having big-game hunters.
Other reported characteristics included 58% of big-game hunters being married, 16% never married, 89% non-Hispanic, and 11% Hispanic. Fifty-eight percent were categorized as White, 10% were in the “other race” category including Pacific Islander, Native American, and multiple races, and 51% had household income of at least $100,000. A further 2.9 million big-game hunters bought special equipment in 2022.
Cooking temperatures for venison and other game
Temperature guidance gives wild-game cooks measurable checkpoints. Minnesota Department of Health guidance lists 160°F as the minimum for ground meats including deer, moose, elk, and caribou. It lists 145°F for fresh beef, veal, lamb, pork, deer, moose, elk, and caribou steaks, chops, and roasts, and 165°F for poultry and game birds. Rabbit is listed at 160°F. The same guidance lists 140°F for reheating precooked ham.
Minnesota Department of Agriculture guidance advises 40°F or less when marinating venison and 165°F as the minimum internal temperature for venison to ensure harmful bacteria are killed. Its retail and food-code demonstration guidance lists 165°F for 15 seconds as the minimum cooking and holding standard for wild game animals.
USDA FSIS guidance recommends 325°F as the minimum oven temperature for roasting meats and poultry, to avoid extended time in the 40°F-to-140°F danger zone. USDA lists 165°F as the safe minimum internal temperature for whole game birds. These are different measurements: oven temperature controls the cooking environment, while internal temperature measures the food.
Jerky, storage, and processing limits
Jerky requires particular attention because dehydration temperatures are not the same as pathogen-destruction temperatures. USDA FSIS guidance places typical food-dehydrator temperatures at 130°F to 140°F and warns that pathogens may remain alive at those temperatures. USDA says meat should reach 160°F and poultry 165°F before dehydrating jerky to destroy bacteria.
Time and cold storage also appear in the handling guidance. USDA/NIFA venison-handling guidance recommends a maximum of 7 days after harvest for carcass cutting. Minnesota advises keeping marinating venison at 40°F or less. These figures concern handling conditions and timing, not flavor or tenderness.
Minnesota Department of Agriculture wild-game processing rules provide a scale example for regulated processing: 200 deer per calendar year is a processing threshold in the cited rule context, while $20,000 or less in annual receipts is an alternative threshold tied to wild-game processing rules. These are regulatory thresholds for that Minnesota context, not general cooking targets or nationwide limits.
Trichinellosis and wild-game cooking risk
CDC data show why thorough cooking matters particularly for some wild meats. CDC’s current “About Trichinellosis” material reports about 15 confirmed U.S. cases per year and about 10,000 recorded cases worldwide per year. Those figures are broad surveillance estimates and should not be confused with the older outbreak counts that follow.
In CDC surveillance for 1986, 74.4% of trichinosis cases with a known source were linked to wild game. Of the wild-game-linked cases, bear accounted for 14 and wild boar for 14. There were 51 total reported cases in 1986, and five common-source outbreaks accounted for 34 of them. One Hawaii outbreak involved 7 illnesses among 21 people who ate wild boar meat; 4 had eaten meat after microwaving it and 17 had eaten it fried.
For 1997–2001, CDC reported that 60% of U.S. trichinellosis cases with a known or suspected source were linked to wild game. Twenty-nine of 52 such cases were linked to wild game, and 29 cases in that period were linked specifically to bear meat. CDC later identified an outbreak in 2008–2012 linked to raw or undercooked black bear meat as a major contributor to nonpork trichinellosis cases.
More recent examples remain distinct from the annual estimate. A 2022 bear-meat outbreak across Arizona, Minnesota, and South Dakota involved 8 people sharing a meal, with 6 becoming ill. CDC’s 2024 “Notes from the Field” described a 2023 North Carolina bear-meat incident with 10 probable cases. The CDC also identified 6 cases in the 2022 outbreak after the shared meal.
For wild-game cooks, the practical statistical pattern is straightforward: reported perceptions of safety and the popularity of venison do not replace temperature control. Use the relevant internal-temperature guidance for the meat and cut, keep marinated venison at 40°F or below, and treat jerky as a separate process requiring the USDA’s pre-dehydration temperatures.