KFC to serve antibiotic free chicken in US
42% of the US chicken industry has already committed to cut the use of antibiotics.
To meet increasing demand for meat raised without certain antibiotics, top US chicken company Tyson Foods Inc (TSN.N) and rival producers are turning to sanitizing wipes, bacteria-reducing fog and even oregano to keep birds healthy.
Some have spent years of trial and error on new techniques to figure out replacements for human drugs, part of a fight against the rise of dangerous antibiotic-resis- tant bacteria in people.
Yum Brands Inc’s (YUM.N) KFC on Friday became the last of the big three U. S. chicken restaurants to move away from antibiotics important to human medicine. McDonald’s Corp (MCD.N) and privately held Chick-filA had already made similar commitments.
Nationwide, more than 42 percent of the U.S. chicken industry has already committed to reducing the use of antibiotics, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. With KFC’s move, that number is set to grow.
KFC US President Kevin Hochman called the chain’s move a “major milestone” that should significantly increase the supply of bone-in chicken raised without medically important antibiotics. It should also open the door for smaller chains to follow KFC’s move, he told Reuters.
KFC, which sells more than 65 million buckets of chicken a year, estimated that one-third of its suppliers were already transitioning to chicken raised with fewer antibiotics.
The company said it was late to shift away from human antibiotics because it had to persuade suppliers of bone-in chickens it uses to make the change.
The chain typically only buys up to one-third of birds in a flock because the others do not meet its specifications. That meant its suppliers needed to find other buyers before being able to curb use of the drugs to satisfy KFC, the company said.
The suppliers have improved hygiene and airflow in chicken houses to keep birds healthy and given them more room to move, Vijay Sukumar, chief food innovation officer for KFC’s US operations, told Reuters on Friday. That has raised costs but also reduced the need for drugs, he said. He did not give further details of the costs.
“We had to convince our suppliers to go for the change and then they worked with us,” Sukumar said. Tyson, one of KFC’s suppliers, set a goal in April 2015 to eliminate the use of human antibiotics from its broiler flocks, or those raised for meat, by the end of September 2017.
More than 90 percent of broiler chickens in its supply chain were raised without antibiotics also used in hu- mans in its fiscal year 2016, Tyson told Reuters on Friday.
The company also plans to switch its retail line of Tysonbranded chicken products to birds raised without any antibiotics. Perdue Farms, a competitor, said it eliminated the routine use of all antibiotics in chicken last year. It now puts oregano in birds’ water, banking on the herb’s antioxidants to keep them healthy, and takes other steps to avoid drugs. Tyson said it has ramped up efforts to sanitize facilities and eggs that hatch into baby chicks, which are most vulnerable to sickness. Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) YouTube said on Thursday it would place ads on channels only if they reach 10,000 views as it tries to weed out people who make money on the site by stealing content from other sources.
The video streaming service also said once a video channel crosses the threshold, it would review the content to see if it qualifies for the placement of ads
“By keeping the threshold to 10k views, we also ensure that there will be minimal impact on our aspiring creators,” Ariel Bardin, YouTube’s vice president of product management, said in a blog post.
YouTube has come under intense scrutiny for ads appearing alongside videos carrying homophobic or anti- Semitic messages, prompting a number of companies to suspend their digital ads on the video streaming service.
The company vowed an overhaul of its practices last month, saying it has started an extensive review of its advertising policies.
While brands have demanded greater control over the videos where their ads appear, the step taken by YouTube this week is likely too small to allay those concerns, said analyst Jan Dawson of Jackdaw Research.
“Most of these (extremist) videos are going to get more viewers than that anyway,” Dawson said of the 10,000view threshold set by YouTube. “They’re popular among the particular audience that they are targeting.”
YouTube also said on Thursday that in a few weeks it would add a review process for new creators who apply to be in the YouTube Partner Program, which lets creators monetize content on YouTube in many ways, including advertisements, paid subscriptions and merchandise.
Any revenue earned on channels with under 10,000 views up until Thursday will not be impacted, YouTube said. As it grapples with the advertiser revolt, YouTube must walk a fine line between giving advertisers more control and alienating the creators who drive the site’s popularity, analysts say.
While some fear small creators could be hurt by restrictions, the 10,000-view threshold is so low that it will not hamper any people who make a living from their channels, said Jonathan Katz, an entertainment lawyer who represents YouTube artists. Creators understand that YouTube must protect its image to retain the ad dollars they depend on, he said.
“As frustrated as (creators) might be with the YouTube ecosystem at times, they understand that their fates are tied,” he said.