The Urban School Food Alliance, composed of six of the largest U.S. school districts, announced its members want antibiotic-free chicken to serve in their cafeterias. The districts, in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami-Dade County, Dallas and Orlando, serve 2.9 million students daily and spend $550 million a year on food and supplies. In a statement, the alliance said its “landmark action…focuses on chicken because it is one of the most popular items served in cafeterias across the country.”
The alliance said its members will seek chicken meat that is verified to be produced with “no antibiotics ever,” on an all-vegetarian diet, with no animal by-products in the feed and under humane conditions. If suppliers cannot meet the “no antibiotics ever” pledge for all their deliveries, they will be required to write a plan on how they will meet the goal. In addition, the Los Angeles school board approved a procurement resolution that calls for antibiotic- and hormone-free foods.
“We support consumer and student choice, but we strongly caution against food trends that are not fully supported by science, will introduce higher costs into the food system, and offer no benefit to public health,” said the National Chicken Council, a trade group. It said all chicken meat is antibiotic-free because of federal rules that require medications to be cleared from the animals’ systems before slaughter.