“Self basting,” “Natural,” “Hormone Free” What do all the claims on a turkey package mean? There are many things to be thankful for this time of year. Friends and family are near to us. The price of gas has plummeted.

One thing you shouldn’t be thankful about, however, is paying extra to purchase a turkey advertised as “hormone-free.” Why? Because 100 percent of turkeys for sale in America are growth-hormone free. Really – it’s true! Despite this fact, many retailers—some with gourmet reputations—advertise their birds with claims that they have “never contained added hormones or steroids.” In fact, it’s been illegal to treat poultry with growth hormones since the 1950s!

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which offers turkey shoppers a great deal of information about turkeys on its website, reports they get more questions on their hotline about turkey than anything else. If you have questions about ol’ Tom the Turkey, you’re not alone. Keep Our Food Safe will endeavor to keep you informed. (By the way, if you missed last week’s podcast on food safety at Thanksgiving, check it out.)

Here’s a common question this time of year: what exactly does “self basting” mean? Self-basting refers to a turkey that’s been injected with asolution made up of salt, MSG, broth, spices and/or butter to help keep the meat moist during roasting. The solution can be up to 3 percent of the bird’s weight. Turkeys that are “self basting” tend to be a little saltier and a little fattier.

Turkeys are also often sold as “organic” or “natural,” and there is a big difference between the two claims. There are no real standards as to what “natural” means, while organic is overseen by the USDA National Organic Standards Board.

As we’ve told you before, organic standards are lengthy. For example, organic poultry cannot be given antibiotics after the first day of their lives. While this might sound important for those who are concerned about antibiotics in the meat they eat, often the only mass application of antibiotics in conventional turkey production is on or before the first day of their lives. So in this regard, organic producers aren’t really doing much different from conventional producers. It’s also important to note that all food animals conventionally raised are not allowed to be sold for food until any drug treatment (including antibiotics) that the food animals have been given is allowed to naturally be metabolized and excreted. (This is known as the “withdrawal period”). The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service randomly tests turkey meat (and all other types of meat, for that matter) to ensure that the FDA established “withdrawal” period has successfully rendered the meat safe to eat. Any fears about antibiotics in conventionally raised birds are unfounded.

Other common turkey questions according to the USDA: What qualifies as a “fresh” turkey? It’s never been below 26 degrees. Is there any difference between hens or Toms? Tom is often bigger and he’s a male; the meat is the same. When is a turkey done and safe to eat? The magic number is 165 degrees on a thermometer inserted into the middle of the bird.

Hopefully, this information will help you be thankful for whatever turkey you wind up roasting or frying this year. At least you now know a bit more about what you’re eating.

Have you ever asked yourself, “What in the world is raw milk?” Or perhaps you’ve debated whether or not it’s safe to give your puppy a leftover turkey drumstick – or safe for you to eat food from a cloned animal.

Well, now we have the answers you’ve been looking for. In audio form! Today we’re launching our new podcast series, “Chew on This,” dedicated to bringing you clarity on issues related to food safety and protecting our nation’s food supply.

The first installment of “Chew on This” is a special Thanksgiving-themed roundup of vital info and precautions for cooking and serving holiday dinners that are safe for the family to enjoy. Listen to the inaugural “Chew on This” now.

Future “Chew on This” podcasts will be delivered every two weeks right here, on Keep Our Food Safe. So check back to listen in. We’ve got a lot of hot topics lined up and a lot of renowned food safety experts in the queue for the podcasts. If you want to know where your food comes from, how it gets to our tables and why it’s important to keep our food safe, abundant and affordable: Tune in! Some of these hot topics include cloned animals, organic foods, pasteurization, animal and product identification, and food importation.

Just remember as you’re listening to the podcasts: America’s veterinarians play key roles in food safety – from farm to fork, as we like to say. These podcasts will let the rest of us in on the key areas of science and research on food topics that they’re involved with on a daily basis.

So without further delay, we proudly present to you the first “Chew on This” podcast, Thanksgiving Food Safety. Listen now!

P.S. – If you have suggestions or ideas about food safety topics you’d like to hear explored in future “Chew on This” installments, just drop us a line in the comment box below.

Obviously, President-Elect Obama has far more weighty decisions to make than picking a puppy for his daughters. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is warning the incoming president that he may face a food safety dilemma.

In a recent announcement, the GAO outlined 13 urgent issues facing the country — including two wars and the economic crisis — and has included food safety among those urgent issues. This public statement is paired with a new GAO Web site to help guide the president and new members of Congress during this transitional period.

The GAO argues that the federal food safety labyrinth — otherwise known as the numerous and disparate federal agencies that in some part oversee food safety — needs to be reevaluated. “Currently a network of 15 agencies administer over 30 food safety laws,” says Lisa R. Shames, director of Natural Resources and Environment at the GAO. This fragmented system, Shames added, has caused ineffective coordination, inconsistent oversight and inefficient use of resources.

Shames argues that agencies responsible for ensuring the safety of food in America are not funded according to the volume of food they inspect. As a result, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which regulates about 20 percent of the food supply (meats, fruits and veggies), gets about 80 percent of the funding, while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees about 80 percent of the food supply yet receives only an approximate 20 percent of federal funding. According to the GAO, this is a good example of where President-Elect Obama, once he takes office, might be able to make some improvements.

Other organizations that impact the safety of our nation’s food — including the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) — argue, however, that volume of food is not the correct measurement to use to allocate resources. Instead, the resources should be allocated on a basis of the amount of risk associated with the different types of foods and the different types of food processing systems.

Additionally, many of these organizations have also called for a reorganization of federal food safety and inspection services. The AVMA, for example, has been calling on the federal government since 1993 to create a “coordinated, integrated, unified food safety regulatory program that is managed by a single federal agency” headed by the USDA.

Considering the overwhelming attention that the ongoing economic crisis, two foreign wars, and homeland security is going to garner in the coming months, KeepOurFoodSafe.org would like to thank the GAO for reminding our nation’s new leaders about the importance of food safety.

A while back, we broke down the basics on organic food and made your grocery shopping a much more pleasant experience. Now that your understanding of organic products is crystal clear, it seems like a good idea to pile on a little more information for you to process. Let’s talk dairy!

Recently, the USDA proposed grazing guidelines for certified organic dairy farms that clarify the requirements for pasture grazing. Remember, organic livestock must be raised without hormones, antibiotics or feed treated with pesticides. Producers were also required to provide the animals with “access to pasture” so they can get out, roam around and graze a bit. But what exactly does that mean?

The term “access to pasture” is pretty vague, but the new standards provide a more concrete requirement with regards to grazing. According to the new USDA guidelines, it means thirty percent of organic livestock’s feed must come from grazing in pasture, as opposed to only eating organically produced food in a feedlot or indoor facility. Organic farms now need to allow animals to graze in pasture at least 120 days a year.

It doesn’t seem like this is a major issue the USDA should be concerned about, right? Not exactly. Consumers and organic advocacy organizations voiced their concerns to the USDA about dairy farms that provide our stores with organic milk but were not providing very much “access to pasture.” This allowed some farms to gain an advantage over other farms by lowering their production costs.

The USDA believes addressing the role of pasture in organic farming will clarify its meaning and allow it to be easier for farms to be in compliance. Many farmers hope these guidelines will not only help ensure adequate and appropriate organic standards are met, but also protect the integrity of organic farming and the products we eat. The National Organic Program is taking comments on these guidelines until December 23.