I picked up some "all natural" ground beef at Trader Joe's the other day. I'm paranoid about mad cow disease, so I try to buy only Angus, grass-fed or organic ground beef. I know all these terms can be misleading, but I'm as careful as possible.

To Trader Joe's, "all natural" means "minimally processed, no artificial ingredients." The package also says, "no antibiotics, no added hormones...never confined to a feedlot." And it says the meat was USDA inspected and passed.

After I got home with it, I discovered one more phrase I'd missed: "Product of Australia."

This is "fresh meat." I checked the dates and learned it was packed March 23 and should be used by April 5. I made spaghetti with it the other night, and it tasted OK. But, still—Australia? It's one more thing I'll have to start checking on meat labels.

On second thought, I'm probably more likely to get mad cow disease from an American cow than an Australian one. (I'll save my rant on our inadequate meat inspections for another time.)