Annual ranking of fast-food meats’ antibiotic policies

Chain restaurants could do more to demand that meat suppliers reduce antibiotic use, according to a new report. Still, the fast food industry has made substantial progress with policies aimed at reducing antibiotic use on U.S. chicken farms.

Working with several health and environmental groups, Consumers Union has released its third annual ranking of fast food chains, based on the restaurants’ policies on antibiotic use in the meat they buy. The overuse of antibiotics, which are routinely fed to farm animals, is considered to be a major contributor to antibiotic resistance, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates causes 23,000 deaths in the U.S. annually and is a global health threat, according to the World Health Organization.

Chipotle and Panera Bread are the only chains out of 25 that received A’s for their policies on chicken, pork and beef. KFC went up from an F to a B-minus this year for committing to phase out antibiotics important to human medicine by the end of next year. McDonald’s, one of the world’s largest beef buyers, got a C-plus because it hasn’t yet established strict policies for pork and beef. The company’s representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

Burger King was among the companies receiving a D, and Applebee’s was among those getting an F. DineEquity, owner of Applebee’s, said that it “recognize(s) the importance of responsible use of antibiotics in the supply chain” and is exploring the issue.

The report, called Chain Reaction, said that many restaurant chains aren’t making enough of an effort to demand that meat suppliers curb subtherapeutic antibiotic use — the practice of routinely administering antibiotics in animal feed or water for weight gain or disease prevention — especially for beef and pork. However, now that larger chains like McDonald’s have begun to demand poultry raised without antibiotics that are also widely used in humans, the report estimates that half of U.S. chicken suppliers have agreed to rein in antibiotic use.

Jim Monroe, senior communications director at the National Pork Producers Council, responded to the Chain Reaction report by saying that pork producers are compliant with federal regulations and have programs for the responsible use of antibiotics.

“U.S. pork producers support the increased regulatory restrictions on the use of antibiotics and only use them with veterinarian oversight to prevent and manage disease,” he said in an email.

As of this year, federal law requires that poultry and meat producers get a prescription to purchase animal feed or water with added antibiotics — at least the kind that are also important for human medicine. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also added guidance that those medicated products must no longer be labeled for use in growth promotion.

California has a similar law due to take effect next year that would require meat and poultry producers to get a prescription for any type of medically important antibiotics they want to use for treatment or preventive use (not just the kind used in feed). And on Tuesday in San Francisco, Supervisor Jeff Sheehy introduced legislation that would require grocery stores with 25 or more locations to report details on antibiotic use in the raw meat and poultry they carry.