Chicken a little bit foul, lawsuit claims

Chicken contains fecal matter, claims a lawsuit filed recently by a nonprofit advocacy group against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, alleging the agency has not appropriately responded to their concerns about contamination in the production of chicken and other meats, USA Today reported Thursday.

The lawsuit was filed by the plant-based diet advocacy group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., after the 12,000-member group claims it had once petitioned the USDA to change how it regulates fecal contamination in meat and poultry production, asserts the lawsuit, accessed by the newspaper. 

That effort was spurred by a study in 2011 by the nonprofit that allegedly found fecal bacteria in 48% of analyzed poultry products sourced from 10 U.S. cities, according to the report.

"Although USDA implements a 'zero tolerance' policy for fecal contamination, this policy applies to visible fecal contamination only," the lawsuit alleges. "The result is that fecally contaminated meat and chicken products pass inspection as long as the feces on them are not visible to the naked eye."