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KFC faces pressure from no-antibiotic McNugget
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KFC, the world’s largest chain of fried chicken restaurants, may face pressure from consumer and environmental groups to change how its poultry are raised after McDonald’s Corp said it would switch to chicken raised without human antibiotics.
McDonald’s will phase out chicken raised with antibiotics that are important to human health over two years to allay concern that use of the drugs in meat production has exacerbated the rise of deadly “superbugs” that resist treatment. Within days, retailer Costco Wholesale Corp said it aims to eliminate the sale of chicken and meat raised with human antibiotics.
KFC is owned by Yum Brands Inc, which has no publicly stated policy on antibiotic use in the production of meat it buys. Chick-fil-A, another chicken restaurant chain that competes with KFC, says about 20 percent of the chicken it serves is raised without any antibiotics, and that its entire supply chain will be converted by 2019.
Both McDonald’s and Yum are stepping up efforts to win back younger and wealthier diners lured away by chains such as Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc and Panera Bread Co, which boast antibiotic-free meats and other high-quality ingredients. Yum’s KFC restaurants in China two years ago suffered a massive sales hit following local media reports that a few poultry farmers supplying KFC fed excessive levels of antibiotics to their chickens.
“The train has left the station,” Bob Goldin, a food services company consultant at Technomic in Chicago, said of McDonald’s influence on US chicken production standards.
Yum, which also owns the Taco Bell and Pizza Hut chains, declined to discuss its standards for antibiotic use in meat production.
“The chicken served in our US restaurants is USDA high quality, and free of antibiotics,” the company said in an e-mailed response to queries.
The antibiotic-free statement refers to a lack of residue in the meat served at its restaurants and not the practice of delivering antibiotics to chickens before they are slaughtered, said Steven Roach, food safety program director at Food Animal Concerns Trust in Chicago.
McDonald’s said it worked with a wide range of stakeholders, including environmental group Friends of the Earth, to develop its US chicken guidelines. Yum and its brands have ignored requests for information regarding its antibiotic policy, said Kari Hamerschlag, senior program manager for Friends of the Earth’s food and technology program.
“They have so far not answered any of our e-mails or phone calls,” said Hamerschlag, who is working with other advocacy groups to persuade food companies to change their supplier standards to exclude animals raised with the routine use of antibiotics. By contrast, McDonald’s was “very responsive” to the groups’ requests, she said.
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