McDonald's to Trim Antibiotics From Its Beef
December 11 2018 - 1:14PM
Dow Jones News
By Julie Jargon
McDonald's Corp. plans to reduce the use of antibiotics in its
global beef supply in the next few years, a tougher task than
removing their use from other types of meat.
The Chicago-based company said Tuesday that it will take two
years to decide how much of the antibiotics important to human
health it will be able to remove from beef. McDonald's said it will
work with meat suppliers in its 10 largest beef-sourcing markets,
including the U.S.
McDonald's and many other fast-food chains already have
eliminated the use of such antibiotics in chicken in the U.S., and
McDonald's is aiming to do so in other markets around the
world.
Reducing the use of such antibiotics in beef has been harder to
do, given McDonald's scale and the smaller number of suppliers that
produce beef without the medicine.
Cattle live longer than chickens, increasing their chances of
getting sick and needing antibiotic treatment. According to the
Natural Resources Defense Council, 43% of the medically important
antibiotics sold to the U.S. livestock sector go to the beef
industry, compared with only 6% for chicken.
Wendy's Co., which said it uses beef from younger and healthier
cattle, this year said it would source about 15% of its beef from a
group of producers that have each committed to a 20% reduction in
antibiotics fed to their cattle.
Other restaurant companies including Chipotle Mexican Grill
Inc., Panera Bread Co. and Doctor's Associates Inc.'s Subway chain
also have either reduced antibiotics used in beef or committed to
do so.
The World Health Organization has said that antibiotic
resistance is the one of the biggest threats to human health
globally. Consumer advocacy groups lauded the McDonald's move,
saying that as the largest U.S. beef purchaser, McDonald's will
force the industry to change.
Since Steve Easterbrook became chief executive nearly four years
ago, McDonald's has been making a number of changes aimed at
becoming what it calls a "better McDonald's." Earlier this year the
company said it was removing artificial ingredients from the buns,
cheese and sauce on its best-known hamburgers in the U.S. and began
making quarter-pound burgers with fresh -- rather than frozen --
beef in the U.S.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 11, 2018 12:59 ET (17:59 GMT)
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