McDonald's - Antibiotics

Spurred by Environmental Defense Fund and public concern over the dangers of antibiotic overuse, fast-food giant McDonald's implemented its global policy to reduce antibiotic use.

This success story had ripple effects in the industry. Building on McDonald's framework to decrease unnecessary antibiotic use, Bon Appétit, a major U.S. food service company, adopted a similar purchasing policy.

Goals

• Retain efficacy of antibiotics for human health
• Establish guidelines for responsible antibiotics use in animal agriculture.

Results

• Instituted a global purchasing policy for McDonald's that:
  • Eliminates the use of medically important antibiotics as growth promoters in poultry produced by direct-relationship suppliers
  • Outlines clear guidelines for the appropriate use of antibiotics
  • Builds a framework for viewing voluntary compliance with the policy as a favorable factor in supply decisions for indirect-relationship suppliers, and
  • Creates a program for certification of direct-relationship supplier compliance.
• Bon Appétit adopts a similar Purchasing Policy that:
  • Eliminates the use of medically important antibiotics in healthy chickens.
  • Establishes a purchasing preference for suppliers of meat, seafood and dairy who minimize the use of medically important antibiotics.

Ripple Effects

• The food service company Bon Appétit Management Company adopted a similar policy curbing antibiotic use in poultry at its 190 locations in the U.S.
• In 2005, Environmental Defense worked with Compass Group, the largest food service company in North America, to expand its purchasing policy to include reductions in antibiotic use on both poultry and pork
• In 2006 McDonald’s top supplier, Tyson Corporate, announced that it had reduced antibiotic use by over 90% and the top four poultry companies in the U.S. all reported eliminating the use of human antibiotics to promote growth in chickens
• We estimate that a total of 223,600 pounds of antibiotics have been reduced from poultry producers in the US since we completed the McDonald's partnership

Press releases

Environmental Defense Commends McDonald's New Policy On Antibiotics
06/19/2003

Environmental Defense Praises Action on Antibiotic Resistance
02/11/2002

Posted: 02-Dec-2008; Updated: 08-Sep-2009