Fecal Residues on Chicken

This wasn’t the only new use of laser technology last year. “Detection of fecal residue on poultry carcasses by laser imaging.”

See, in slaughter plants, birds are gutted by a metal hook that often rips the intestines. So, commonly, the skin on chicken gets contaminated by these ruptures of the digestive tract during the evisceration process—which can expel what they call “internal content.” Internal content that can be picked up by laser scanning.

So, what percentage of retail chicken carcasses are contaminated with fecal matter? 92%. Nine chickens out of ten. At least with pigs and cows, we don’t eat the outside of them.

But that’s one of the problems with eating chickens and fish—by eating the animals’ skin itself, we’re more likely to be exposed to fecal bacteria. Don’t try this at home.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

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• M. E. Darvin, A. Patzelt, F. Knorr, U. Blume-Peytavi, W. Sterry, and J. Lademann. One-year study on the variation of carotenoid antioxidant substances in living human skin: influence of dietary supplementation and stress factors. J Biomed Opt, 13(4):044028, 2008.
• B. Cho, M. S. Kim, K. Chao, K. Lawrence, B. Park, and K. Kim. Detection of fecal residue on poultry carcasses by laser-induced fluorescence imaging. J. Food Sci., 74(3):-154, 2009.

• beef
• chicken
• factory farming practices
• fecal contamination
• food poisoning
• foodborne illness
• pork
• poultry
• red meat