[nradov]

I've got news for you: wild animals shit on your food crops all the time.

[ethbr0]

My father was in livestock pathology and always had a chuckle whenever spinach or (insert product here) would claim field contamination.

His verdict: 9/10 it's rat feces at the processing or packaging plant.

But from a marketing perspective, field crop contamination is an act of God. Can't be helped.

Plant contamination would actually mean someone was at fault. And would require (expensive) changes.

[snovv_crash]

The issue when it's people is it let's parasites enter a lifecycle which isn't complicated. Human feces is more likely to have parasites infectious to humans

[TaylorAlexander]

Right but apparently that doesn't kill me. The question is what happens to industrial runoff in the water stream and if that has any effect on food safety.

[ethbr0]

I think (someone correct me if I'm wrong) US stormwater / runoff systems have to be isolated from sewer systems. Maybe an EPA requirement?

So reclaimed water is typically dealing with "anything anyone puts down a piped drain in their house."

(That said, I think there are also runoff processing requirements before discharge into waterways too)