Fast food:
Panera Bread, Chipotle are toprated on policies toward antibiotics use.
When it comes to antibiotics use in fast food, Chipotle and Panera Bread are at the head of the class. Subway gets a solid B. McDonald’s is sneaking by with C-plus.
For the second year in a row, Natural Resources Defense Council and several other organizations rated the 25 largest American fast-food and fast-casual restaurants on their policies toward antibiotics use. While the majority got failing grades in the “Chain Reaction” report, many chain restaurants have made progress, especially when sourcing antibioticfree chicken — though Chipotle, Panera and now Subway also have strong policies on beef and pork.
“We were really encouraged to see that twice as many restaurant chains had adopted new policies,” said Kari Hamerschlag of Friends of the Earth in Berkeley, one of the report’s authors, who attributes the changes to both consumer and shareholder pressure. “We had hoped to see even more progress on beef and pork.”
Drug-resistant bacteria are the cause of 2 million illnesses and 23,000 deaths annually in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An estimated 70 percent of medically important antibiotics are used in livestock production, often given routinely to healthy animals to prevent illness or stimulate growth rather than to cure disease. Between 2009 and 2014, livestock and poultry farms increased their use of these antimicrobial drugs by 23 percent, according to the Food and Drug Adminis-
tration.
That could change now that more fast-food chains have recently announced policies and are continuing to work with suppliers to gradually have more antibioticfree meat. This year beef producer Cargill announced that it would reduce antibiotic use by 20 percent, and Tyson announced a line of antibiotic-free pork. Tyson, a chicken supplier to McDonald’s, had previously pledged to eliminate antibiotics in its broiler chickens this year.
Some fast-food restaurants may be responding to pressure from local chains, such as Super Duper in the Bay Area, that replicate the fastfood experience with meat from more natural sources. The beef and chicken served at Super Duper’s 10 locations is antibiotic-free; its chicken is also organic.
The FDA discourages producers from using antibiotics routinely in feed to promote growth, but does not prohibit the practice, and its guidance also leaves room for routine use for disease prevention. In California, regulations will be tighter starting in January 2018 following the passage of SB27, which will allow antibiotic use in livestock only under veterinary supervision.
Meat producers and chain restaurants have been quicker to adopt antibiotics policies on chicken because it’s generally less costly to change farming methods for poultry than beef or pork, Hamerschlag said. McDonald’s grade improved from a C last year to a C-plus because it announced it had fully switched over to antibiotic-free chicken in its U.S. stores.
“With McDonald’s there’s a been a lot of shareholder action around this issue,” said Hamerschlag. “I think next year we’re going to see more progress on pork and beef from McDonald’s.”
It’s unclear whether fast-food companies will raise prices as they cut back on antibiotics. After Chipotle began serving antibiotic-free pork in 2000, it raised menu prices on pork items by $1, yet still saw sales double. A few years later, the company increased menu prices by 20 and 30 cents after it changed to antibiotic-free poultry and beef, according to Chris Arnold, Chipotle’s communications director.
In-N-Out Burger, a West Coast chain not included in the report, also announced this year that it would phase out antibiotics in its beef. Hamerschlag said that the company needs to provide a timeline to make its promise more serious.
In addition, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Papa John’s all increased their ranking in the Chain Reaction report for making incremental improvements in their antibiotics policies. The ones that failed — like Burger King and Starbucks — do not have strong policies.
“It is critically important that the fast-food chains do this,” said Dr. Michael J. Martin, associate clinical professor at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF. “Unless the demand is there, producers are not going to respond and take antibiotics out of their meat or raise animals without antibiotics.”