Grocery chain Trader Joe’s should help preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics by putting stricter standards on its meat suppliers, says Consumers Union. It delivered a letter, signed by more than 2,000 medical professionals, to the company headquarters, asking it to sell only meat that comes from food animals raised without routine use of antibiotics. “Supermarket chains have huge leverage with meat producers, and we are urging Trader Joe’s to lead the way on getting antibiotics out of meat and poultry production,” said Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union, the policy arm of Consumer Reports, in a statement.
The FDA has launched a voluntary three-year phase-out of the use of medically important antibiotics to promote growth of livestock and to require veterinary approval of antibiotics to prevent, control or treat disease. Animal agriculture is a major consumer of antibiotics.