43
Golden Arches gets new standard
Photo
An order of McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets is displayed for a photo. McDonald’s says it plans to start using chicken raised without antibiotics important to human medicine and milk from cows that are not treated with the artificial growth hormone rbST.
Associated Press
NEW YORK
McDonald’s says it plans to require chicken suppliers to stop using antibiotics important to human medicine within two years.
The company says its suppliers will still be able to use a type of antibiotic called ionophores that keeps chickens healthy and isn’t used in humans. Later this year, McDonald’s also said it will no longer serve milk from cows treated with a particular artificial growth hormone.
Many cattle, hog and poultry producers give their livestock antibiotics to make them grow faster and ensure they are healthy. The practice has become a public-health issue, with officials saying it can lead to germs becoming resistant to drugs so that the drugs are no longer effective in treating a particular illness in humans.
Chipotle and Panera already say they serve chicken raised without antibiotics, but the announcement by McDonald’s is notable because of its size; the company has more than 14,000 U.S. locations. Chipotle has nearly 1,800 locations, while Panera has almost 1,900 locations.
“This really does move the ball quite a bit,” said Gail Hansen, a senior officer with the antibiotic resistance project with The Pew Charitable Trusts. Hansen said that ionophores, the antibiotics that will be allowed by McDonald’s, are not considered medically important for humans.
Hansen noted the poultry industry already had been moving away from the use of antibiotics used in human medicine, which likely made the decision by McDonald’s easier.
McDonald’s noted that though suppliers still can use medically important antibiotics to treat sick animals, those animals would not be used in its food supply.