McDonald's - Antibiotics

No more playing chicken with antibiotics

Long used to McDonald's ubiquitous golden arches in the U.S., Americans can now count on getting a Big Mac or Chicken McNuggets just about anywhere in the world, from Bangkok to Bahrain and beyond. So it was no small potatoes when the world's largest restaurant chain announced it implemented a new policy that impacts the way its direct-relationship poultry suppliers use antibiotics to raise animals.

Spurred by Environmental Defense and mounting public concern over the dangers of antibiotic overuse, the food giant laid out a new set of standards that build on its past steps to curb drug use in animals raised for food. Our Corporate Partnerships and Health staff played a key role in helping McDonald's shape its new policy, working with a diverse coalition of organizations that had a considerable stake in the process (including drug manufacturers, academic scientists and members of the medical community). "We are delighted that McDonald's isn't chicken about reducing antibiotic use," says Environmental Defense senior scientist Dr. Rebecca Goldburg, an expert on antibiotic resistance.

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

A major prong of the new policy restricts the use of antibiotics important in human medicine as growth promoters for animals. An outright ban on this type of antibiotic use applies to all the restaurant chain's direct poultry suppliers. Administering antibiotics to promote growth generally involves adding low dosages of antibiotics to the feed or water of healthy animals to speed weight gain (as opposed to treating sick animals or animals at risk of disease in a sick flock or herd). "These antibiotics are often used to compensate for the crowded, stressful conditions that can be found on some large animal-production facilities," says Goldburg.

McDonald's policy applies to its direct-relationship poultry suppliers, but does seek to encourage voluntary compliance by indicating it will be a favorable factor in future purchasing decisions.  The policy is already having a ripple effect in the industry.  Bon Appetit, a U.S. food service company, has begun to implement a similar policy.

"One of the reasons we are excited about McDonald's antibiotics policy now being implemented," says Gwen Ruta, head of Corporate Partnerships at Environmental Defense, "is that McDonald's, as the largest purchaser in the fast-food industry, wields enormous influence within the supply chain."

In 2002, McDonald's announced that they had stopped buying poultry treated with fluoroquinolones, a class of antibiotics (including Cipro) that are critical for treating infections in humans. (Read story.) The European Union is already in the process of phasing out the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in animals.

"We would like other chain restaurants, grocery stores and food service companies to adopt similar policies to reduce antibiotic use," says Ruta. "McDonald's has opened the door for other buyers -- especially those who are buying meat from the same suppliers -- and has shown that reducing antibiotics is both feasible and affordable. We call on other meat purchasers to adopt similar policies."

The Growing Menace of Antibiotic Resistance

So what exactly is the problem with antibiotics in our meat supply? For years, Environmental Defense has echoed many doctors and scientists in the health field who have called attention to the dangers of overusing and misusing antibiotics in human medicine and in animal agriculture.

By one estimate, some 70 percent of all antibiotics used in the U.S. are fed to healthy pigs, poultry and beef cattle. The American Medical Association, the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization all have taken positions opposing the use of antibiotics in healthy farm animals and have taken steps to address the problem in human medicine.

In 2001, we released a report warning that many of the "wonder drugs" doctors use to treat such life-threatening infections as staph (Staphylococcus) and Salmonella food poisoning are increasingly losing their effectiveness to quell these bacteria. (Read the report When Wonder Drugs Don't Work [PDF].)

The Golden Overarching Principle

Other fast food companies have said that their poultry suppliers have cut down on antibiotic use, but while that is welcome news, the McDonald's policy goes further. "McDonald's is successfully implementing its policy with its direct-relationship poultry suppliers.  In addition to mandatory antibiotics reductions, the policy also requires written certification and detailed facility-level record-keeping," says Ruta. The hope is that McDonald's has shown that cutting antibiotics use in animal agriculture is feasible and cost-effective and that other companies will make similar requirements for more responsible antibiotic use across the board.

Posted: 14-Sep-2009; Updated: 14-Sep-2009