It Doesn’t Take a Doctor to See What’s Fowl with Chicken Poop

Warning! May contain feces.” It’s been more than a year since the Physicians Committee petitioned the USDA to require this label on chicken products. But last week, Physicians Committee director of legal affairs Mark Kennedy, Esq., finally sat down with more than a dozen USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) officials. Fecal contamination in chicken is an ever-growing issue. Physicians Committee studies have found that a vast amount of chicken is contaminated with fecal matter. And it gets worse—according to a Consumer Reports study, 97 percent of raw chicken in U.S. supermarkets is contaminated with bacteria that could make customers sick.

Following the meeting, FSIS officials are now reviewing the Physicians Committee petition to the USDA requesting that feces be labeled and regulated as an “adulterant.” However, officials stated that they rarely grant petitions unless there is significant pressure to do so. Help us get the word out about the prevalence of fecal contamination in chicken! Share this blog with your family and friends—and you can even tweet to the @USDA with a link to our petition: http://goo.gl/2L8KXA.