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Talking turkey about labels this Thanksgiving

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With the holidays approaching, turkey is at the top of many shopping lists. A trip to the grocery store can be overwhelming with so many different options including organic, free-range and hormone-free meats. This week on “Take Care,” we discuss what these terms meanwith Susan Moores.

Susan Moores is a registered dietitian and former national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. Moores has also written for the Wall Street Journal and MSNBC and covers healthy eating at her website SusanMoores.com.

According to Moores, a label reading “organic” means that the producer of the turkey had to meet standards set by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

“It’s got actual rules and regulations that producers have to abide by, and they’re periodically checked on to make sure that they’re in compliance,” Moores says.

Moores says that in regard to taste, there is generally not much of a difference between an organic turkey and a turkey raised on a regular farm.

“Free-range is sort of an interesting term in that all it means is that those birds had to have access to the outdoors, it doesn’t necessarily mean they went outdoors,” says Moores.

“Free-range” is a term that only relates to poultry. According to Moores this can be a very meaningful term; it just depends on the facility and the producers.

The term "grass-fed" refers only to beef. It generally means that the cattle have been grazed rather than solely grain-fed, and there is a noticeably different taste between cattle that have been grass-fed and those that have not.

In regard to poultry, the term “vegetarian-fed” means that the poultry were not given feed with any animal by-products. As a result, these birds have been raised primarily on grain.

If a package of poultry or pork says that there are no hormones added, know that legally no poultry or turkey product could have hormones.

“No poultry or pork can have hormones added,” Moores says.

According to Moores, however, an antibiotic-free claim is meaningful.

“I feel strongly that it’s good to choose meat that doesn’t have antibiotics added in,” says Moores.