Frozen or fresh? Which turkey should you buy?

It’s finally November. To beat the crowds, you rush to your grocery store to buy a turkey. If this is your first time, you’re faced with a dilemma: frozen or fresh?

Don’t worry. There are guidelines to help:

• Have more than a week before the meal? Choose frozen – when purchasing a frozen turkey, leave enough time for defrosting.

• Have less than a week to prepare? Select fresh – fresh turkeys should not be purchased until one or two days before it’s cooked, unless the manufacturer’s tag has a “Best by” or “Use by” date, that indicates the turkey will be OK on the cooking date. If there is no tag, then purchase a fresh turkey one or two days, before planning to cook it.

While buying the rest of the Thanksgiving items, remember, food product date tags are not safety dates.

“Best if Used By/Before” indicates when a product will be of the best flavor or quality. “Freeze-By” indicates when a product should be frozen to maintain peak quality. “Sell-By” tells the store how long to display the product.

For more information on turkey products, check out a fact sheet, and learn about the latest USDA study on safe food handling and thorough handwashing, at fsis.usda. gov.

Have a food safety question? Contact the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline, at 888-674-6854, to talk to a food safety specialist or chat live, at ask.usda.gov, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. The hotline will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thanksgiving Day.