Is the Elite Gourmet EFD319 hot enough for jerky?

Last reviewed July 2026.

No — its own published maximum sits below USDA's 160°F number. Elite Gourmet's own product page sells jerky in the headline and lists a 95–158°F range in the spec table — a maximum below USDA's 160°F meat number before the first degree of dial drift. The same page's prose says "160"; the spec table says 158; neither reaches poultry's 165°F. On a unit that cannot set 160°F even nominally, the oven pre-heat or post-heat step is not a refinement — it is the only route to the number the marketing invokes. We don't link a purchase on rows marketed for jerky below the line.

The facts on file

Sources — read them yourself

• Elite Gourmet — EFD319 product page (jerky marketing; spec table 95–158°F; $39.99)
• USDA FSIS — Jerky (160°F meat / 165°F poultry)

How to read this

USDA's jerky guidance sets the numbers — 160°F for meat, 165°F for poultry — and explains why the dehydrator can't be trusted to hit them on its own: evaporating moisture absorbs the heat, so the meat stays cooler than the air until most of the drying is done. Independent dial testing routinely finds units running 5–15°F below their setting. The answer on every row is the same and costs nothing: the oven step, before or after drying. And remember the dial is not the food's temperature.

See every dehydrator we track, claim by claim → · the units marketed for jerky below the line →

Dehydrator Score indexes manufacturer-published temperature specs and marketing claims against the USDA jerky record, with attribution — we test nothing and give no safety advice. No dial setting substitutes for USDA's instruction: heat meat to 160°F (poultry 165°F) in an oven before dehydrating, or bake the finished jerky after — inside a dehydrator, evaporating moisture holds the meat below air temperature until it is already dry. If a maker publishes a spec or manual that changes a row, the page changes — the record wins.