Absence of antibiotics in the meat supply. If you’re dining at a restau-
rant or food-service venue that doesn’t specify on the menu or
in-store marketing materials whether the meat served comes
from animals raised without medically important antibiotics,
don’t be shy about asking your server or at the counter. Think
that’s too awkward to be realistic? Here’s a hypothetical scene:
“Excuse me, is the burger/carnitas burrito/kung pao chicken
made from animals raised without antibiotics?” “Uh . . . I don’t
know.” “OK—would you mind asking the manager? Thanks!”
Even if the manager doesn’t have the answer for you on the
spot, you can leave feeling good about having done your part
to help normalize this kind of transparency. If enough con-
scious eaters ask, it’ll become standard practice to disclose
this information in-store or on the company website. And then
you won’t have to ask anymore; your future self thanks you for
enduring a possibly awkward moment.
Each year, in conjunction with other research and advocacy
groups, Consumer Reports releases an antibiotic scorecard,
“Chain Reaction,” evaluating the largest fast food and fast
casual brands in America. Beef production takes up 40 per-
cent of the antibiotics important to human medicine that are
used by the overall meat industry, whereas chicken takes up
just 6 percent. Given beef’s large antibiotic footprint, in 2018
Consumer Reports began releasing a separate scorecard just
for burger joints. Consult both scorecards before selecting a
chain restaurant. (You can find them at consumerreports.org.)
On the 2018 burger scorecard, a mere two of the top
twenty-five burger chains in America—BurgerFi and Shake
Shack—got A grades, meaning 100 percent of the beef they
serve is raised without the routine use of antibiotics. More dis-
turbing, twenty-two of the remaining twenty-three got an F
grade, meaning they have no substantial antibiotic-reductionSt u f f t h at’s made in restaurant kitchens 227Conscious Eater_04 PT_4th patches.indd 227 10/23/19 1:38 PM