It is now legal for your meat to have traces of fecal matter

(KXAN / CNN) – A Consumer Lawyer group wants the government to require meat distributors to send a message about the food they send out to grocery stores – "may contain stools." 19659003] According to CNN, the lawyer of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine says the recommendation is heavy in the cheek. The organization represents 1[ads1]2,000 doctors who aim to promote plant-based diets and ethical scientific research.

Yes or not, PCRM has real concerns about the US Department of Agriculture Food Safety Inspection System.

US Department of Agriculture says It has a "zero tolerance policy for fecal material on meat and poultry."

The USDA said it sends inspectors out to facilities that look at a large amount of meat selected throughout the day. If inspectors are to find fecal material on an animal hook, they will ensure that contaminated meat cannot enter the food supply, the USDA says.

However, PCRM's lawyer says that the USDA's current inspection policy is not enough because it only applies to faeces that are "visible" on the production line.

In addition, the USDA has relaxed its rules on the speed at which poultry farms can treat birds. The requirement was 140 birds per minute, but was raised to 175 birds per minute.

This gives line workers about three birds to scan per second – a speed that is considered fast to see some fecal mats.

For at least six years, the PCRM has questioned feces in birds, and they have recently filed a lawsuit in Washington, DC, federal district court.

"No one will eat stools," says Deborah Press, PCRM's lawyer.

But, the concern extends beyond just ickiness: microbes like E. coli is found in stools.

Despite these concerns, they say that they do not receive a response from the government on food inspection procedures.

In 2013, PCRM sent a petition to the USDA and requested that it change its rules on fecal pollution.

During a test of chicken products, PCRM found that 48 percent of the meat was tested positive for fecal contamination.

PCRM filed a Freedom of Information Request in 2017 and requested "USDA poultry inspector registrations, visible fecal pollutant detection levels, average spring line rate, USDA poultry inspection and inspection training."

Their current lawsuit states that USDA broke the deed by not responding to the request. Federal law requires agencies to respond to FOIA requests within 20 days of receipt, according to the Digital Media Law Project.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture told CNN not to comment on pending litigation. [19659004] According to PCRM, the requirement for "visible" fecal contamination explains what happens to chickens under the poultry line.

The group says a named federal inspector who spoke to them:

"We often see birds walking down the line with the gut still attached, which is full of fecal contamination. If there is no fecal contamination on the bird's skin, however, we cannot do anything to stop the bird from going down that line. "

The bird would then enter a vessel of water, where the remaining fecal material could wash out and be able to settle on other bird bodies in the tank. The inspector said that this is sometimes referred to as "fecal soup."

According to Press, while the complaint will have a hard time sticking to court, she believes that change can happen.