US – The National Turkey Federation (NTF) strongly disputes the misleading findings of a Consumer Reports article about ground turkey, which makes a number of alarming claims based on a sample of ground turkey products.

Consumer Reports has carried out tests on ground turkey meat, finding that bacteria on turkey raised without antibiotics had significantly less antibiotic resistance than bacteria on conventional turkey. Ninety per cent of samples had one or more of the five bacteria tested

The June Edition of Consumer Reports Magazine features a piece on antibiotics in the raising of turkeys, and recommends Certified Humane® turkey as an alternative to animals given feed containing antibiotics.

“Our findings strongly suggest that there is a direct relationship between the routine use of antibiotics in animal production and increased antibiotic resistance in bacteria on ground turkey. It’s very concerning that antibiotics fed to turkeys are creating resistance to antibiotics used in human medicine,” said Dr. Urvashi Rangan, Director of the Food Safety and Sustainability Group at Consumer Reports…Consider other labels, such as “Animal Welfare Approved” and “Certified Humane®,” which mean that antibiotics were restricted to sick animals.

Bacteria on Turkey Raised Without Antibiotics Showed Significantly Less Antibiotic Resistance than Bacteria on Conventional Turkey

“Humans don’t consume antibiotics every day to prevent disease and neither should healthy animals. Prudent use of antibiotics should be required to stem the public health crisis generated from the reduced effectiveness of antibiotics.”- Dr. Urvashi Rangan

Bacteria on Turkey Raised Without Antibiotics Showed Significantly Less Antibiotic Resistance than Bacteria on Conventional Turkey

“Certified Humane®… on the label indicates antibiotics were either never used or were only used in case of illness.”

Today, Pete and Gerry’s, located in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, is a regional powerhouse, distributing “Certified Humane®” organic eggs up and down the East Coast. “For the past 13 years, we’ve had compound annual growth of 35 percent, with revenue north of $50 million,” says Laflamme, “although the nature of agriculture means gross margins are pretty narrow.”

Certified Humane® (CH) is an animal care organization with a long and very strict list of guidelines that participating farmers must follow. CH animals must have been raised from birth through the time of slaughter in natural, humane conditions.

Real Simple praises the “philosophy behind Saffron Road products, including company’s choice to use Certified Humane® meat in their products.