McDonald’s Says Antibiotics Policy for Food Animals Under Review
Just a day after McDonald’s launched its transparency campaign “Our food. Your questions.” the fast-food giant told FERN it began reviewing its global antibiotic use policy in food animals earlier this year.
The company announced its original policy in 2003 in response to growing public health concerns surrounding the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria linked to use on the farm. Suppliers were given until the end of 2004 to end their use of antibiotics used in human medicine solely to make the animals grow faster. However, the company still allows the use of those antibiotics as long as a veterinarian prescribes them. Critics claim the policy does little to reduce the risks of antibiotic resistance, because it still allows farmers to give antibiotics to healthy animals.
While tracking down the apparent absence of any pre-recorded answers to questions about antibiotic use in their new video campaign, we stumbled across a McDonald’s web page, which contained the company’s original 2003 antibiotic policy. The page indicated the policy was under review in 2014. When asked to clarify a spokesman told us:
“We are currently reviewing our global antibiotic use policy with advisement from our global, cross-functional antibiotic use team. The team includes academicians, clinical pharmacologists, epidemiologists, ethicists and animal health and welfare experts, as well as representatives from our supplier community, and others from Europe, Australia, Latin America and the U.S. They provide the Company with both science-based and practical advice as we review our policy for relevance against emerging science and consumer expectations.”
The company’s statement echoed what McDonald’s told Mother Jones earlier this year. After inquiring whether the company’s 2013 commitment to purchase more sustainable beef by 2016 included plans to, “cease using antibiotic-fed beef,” McDonald’s said that it was studying the issue.
McDonald’s tells us that the antibiotics policy review began earlier this year, but it does not have a specific date for when it will be finalized. Meanwhile, PBS’s Frontline just released a new documentary on antibiotic usage in animal agriculture and its links to antibiotic resistance called “The Trouble with Antibiotics.”