McDonald’s to limit antibiotics use in its global chicken supply by 2018
McDonald’s Corp has committed to begin reducing the use of human antibiotics in its global supply of chicken beginning 2018 as the company joins the worldwide battle against deadly antibiotic-resistant bacteria, also known as superbugs.
McDonald’s, in a policy statement, said it is working on antibiotic plans for other meats, dairy cows and laying hens.
McDonald’s is requiring suppliers of chicken meat to begin phasing out the use of antibiotics defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “highest priority critically important antimicrobials” (HPCIA) to human medicine.
Public health and consumer groups applauded the move, which is not as strict as the company’s policy for the United States, where already for a year suppliers have provided the chain with chickens raised without antibiotics deemed important to human health.
In January 2018, HPCIAs will be gone from McDonald’s chickens in Brazil, Canada, Japan, South Korea, the United States and Europe. Only in Europe the company will make an exception for Colistin, a last resort antibiotic.
By the end of 2019, suppliers in Australia and Russia will stop using HPCIAs and European suppliers plan to remove Colistin.
Suppliers in all other markets will comply by January 2027.
“Our goal is to have this policy implemented before this date,” McDonald’s said in its posted antibiotic policy update.
McDonald’s told a group of consumer and environmental organizations on that 74% of its global chicken sales will conform to this policy as of January 2018, Consumers Union, the policy division of Consumer Reports, said in a statement.
Consumers Union also said the company told the group that it hopes to have a timeline soon for reducing medically important antibiotics from its beef supply.
“If fully implemented, (the plans) could be a total game changer that could transform the marketplace given the company’s massive buying power,” Jean Halloran, Consumers Union’s director of food policy initiatives, said in a statement.
In the US, over 70% of medically important antibiotics are used for livestock to promote growth and prevent illness.
But scientists have warned against the routine use of antibiotics in healthy farms animals as the practice contributes to the rise of dangerous antibiotic-resistant superbug infections, which kill at least 23,000 Americans each year and pose a significant threat to global health.
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