The Physicians Committee sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2019 for ignoring concerns over widespread fecal contamination of chicken products. The lawsuit followed USDA unresponsiveness to a Physicians Committee petition that included results from tests conducted on 120 chicken products sold by 15 grocery store chains in 10 U.S. cities. Evidence of fecal contamination was found in 48% of samples.
Although USDA implements a “zero tolerance” policy for fecal contamination, this policy only applies to visible fecal contamination. Chicken products pass inspection as long as feces are not visible to the naked eye.
The lawsuit and petition quote a federal inspector who said, “We often see birds going down the line with intestines still attached, which are full of fecal contamination. If there is no fecal contamination on the bird’s skin, however, we can do nothing to stop that bird from going down that line. It is more than reasonable to assume that once the bird gets into the chill tank (a large vat of cold water), that contamination will enter the water and contaminate all of the other carcasses in the chiller. That’s why it is sometimes called ‘fecal soup.’”
Video obtained by the Physicians Committee through a Freedom of Information Act request made in 2013, revealed that the chicken slaughtering process ends with carcasses soaking in cold water—“fecal soup”—for up to one hour before being packaged for consumers.
No comments:
Post a Comment