Hosting this year's Thanksgiving dinner? An expert has some advice about how much turkey to buy. Gary Crawford has more.

PARTICIPANTS: Gary Crawford and Meredith Carothers with the USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline.

The USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline number is 888-MPHOTLINE (888-674-6854). Listeners can also go online to Ask.usda.gov

TRANSCRIPT

Ah, hunting.

It's that time of year when many of us go out hunting for a turkey. (gunshot) (screaming) Oh, no, no, not out in the wild as some do, but at the supermarket.

Now, over the last couple of years, some of us have had to scale down the number of people at our Thanksgiving dinners.

I remember Agriculture Department food safety expert Meredith Carruthers telling me two years ago.

We're just gonna do a little small get together this year.

Aha, but this year, it looks like many of us are going to have more folks over for dinner.

Now, Meredith works with the Agriculture Department's meat and poultry hotline, the number of which we'll give you in a minute.

She says one of the big questions that they get on the hotline is, how big a turkey do I need to buy for the number of guests that are coming?

And Meredith, what do you tell them?

So we generally recommend to follow about a one pound per person rule, and then about a pound and a half if you would like to have leftovers.

So depending on your party size, depending on how many people are eating, usually about a pound to a pound and a half per person.

Now, as far as shopping for that turkey, Meredith says it's important to know that the longer that raw meat or poultry is at room temperature, the greater the chances that any bacteria that might be in or on it will multiply, especially if it's out of the freezer for more than a couple of hours.

Of course, yes, that turkey is probably frozen, but the thawing begins when you take it out of the frozen meat counter.

So if you have a big grocery shop, if you're going to the grocery store to get everything for your Thanksgiving meal, we do really recommend to try grabbing that turkey towards the end of your shopping trip, so it's not taking a ride in the cart for many minutes or hours, even sometimes in the store, that you're getting it towards the end and it's going straight from the refrigerator case to the checkout, to the car, to home, to the refrigerator.

And it's in the refrigerator that Meredith recommends thawing that turkey.

That way the thawing takes place, but the bird's temperature stays below 40 degrees and below the temperature at which bacteria can multiply.

But thawing in the refrigerator will take some time, about 24 hours for each five pounds of turkey.

And it is safe to keep that turkey in the refrigerator one to two days after it is fully thawed.

And if you have other questions about preparing that holiday meal, call the folks at the Meat and Poultry Hotline.

Here's the number, 1-888-MP-HOTLINE.

1-888-MP-HOTLINE, or go online to ask.usda.gov.

Ask.usda.gov.

The experts, including you, Meredith, will be working even on Thanksgiving Day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern Time, right, Meredith?

Yep, we are getting ourselves ready to answer calls rapid fire.

That's right, Gary Crawford, Reporting for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.