Some of hungry partygoers at your Memorial Day gathering this weekend might be crying out, Where's the beef!?! But from a food-safety perspective, a more salient question is, How well done is the beef?

More than half of the raw ground turkey and patty products we recently analyzed contained fecal bacteria, and 90 percent had at least one of the five bacteria that we looked for, including some notorious for causing foodborne illness, like salmonella and staphylococcus aureus. And almost all of the disease-causing bugs were resistant to one or more of the antibiotics commonly used to fight them. So if you get sick you might have to try several antibiotics to find one that helps. A better strategy: Take steps to avoid getting sick from ground turkey in the first place. Here's how.

How much progress have federal officials made in taking steps to reduce Americans' exposure to arsenic in everyday foods such as rice and apple juice? Not as much as we'd hope to see. While there is an arsenic standard for drinking water, no federal limit exists for arsenic in most foods.

Whole Foods Market has recalled one lot code of 4-oz packages of Whole Catch Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon (cold smoked and sliced) because the product may contain Listeria Monocytogenes, which can cause a sometimes fatal infection in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today proposed food-safety rules to help prevent contamination. One will target produce and the second would raise standards for food processors.

There's been a lot of buzz lately about the safety of energy drinks and shots. Following reports of harmful reactions and even deaths possibly associated with the products, two U.S. senators recently released a letter from the FDA stating that the agency is conducting a safety review of energy drinks and is considering requiring that labels disclose the amount of caffeine the products pack, limitations on use, and warnings about possible adverse effects. That makes sense, since our recent investigation found that the products sometimes have more caffeine than they claim.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has shuttered Sunland Inc.'s New Mexico plant after peanut butter made by the company was linked to an outbreak of Salmonella that sickened 41 people in 20 states.

Floods can contaminate the water you drink, making a bad situation worse. Obviously, the simplest step is using bottled water if you can. If that's not available, follow this advice from the U.S. Department of Agriculture:

If you lost power during Hurricane Sandy, don't taste the food to see if it's OK. Instead, follow this advice from the U.S. Department of Agriculture:

Incident reports filed with the Food and Drug Administration linking the energy drink Monster with five deaths in recent years have cast doubts on the safety of these highly caffeinated beverages. And rightly so. Other research suggests that more than 13,000 people a year visit U.S. emergency rooms because of symptoms associated with these drinks, and thousands more call regional poison control centers. And our tests of energy drinks, out today, found that, per serving, some energy drinks contain as much as twice the caffeine in a typical 8 oz cup of coffee. Often, labels don't reveal the caffeine levels.

Organic foods don't seem to be nutritionally superior to conventionally raised foods, and there's no proof that eating them translates into less disease, according to a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics. But the report also notes that organic foods do have lower levels of pesticides, and that organically raised animals are less likely to be contaminated with drug-resistant bacteria, points that Consumer Reports' experts also stress.

Sunland Inc. has extended its recall of peanut products because of Salmonella contamination to include raw and roasted shelled and in-shell peanuts processed at its plant in Portales, New Mexico.

That's the message being delivered today by Consumers Union, our policy and advocacy arm, in a petition containing nearly 560,000 signatures to Trader Joe's in Union Square in New York City. The petition urges the food store to sell only meat and poultry raised without antibiotics to help prevent the creation of superbugs, which are dangerous bacteria immune to one or more antibiotics. And, there's a special guest to help deliver the message: "Joe the Pig" will be on hand to ask Trader Joe's to help get him off drugs (he's wearing a pink pig costume with a Hawaiian shirt).

Boutique food chain Trader Joe's has issued a nationwide safety recall for its Creamy Salted Valencia Peanut Butter, said the Food and Drug Administration. The concern over possible salmonella contamination in the 16-ounce jars of the peanut butter staple underscores the need for the Food Safety Modernization Act—a toughened safety bill whose implementation has been stalled by the U.S. government for the past nine months, says Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports.

Three members of Congress on Friday said they are introducing the "R.I.C.E Act" to limit the amount of arsenic permitted in rice and rice-based products. The proposed legislation follows a Consumer Reports investigation that found worrisome levels of arsenic, including the inorganic form, in many of the more than 60 products tested.