Guide to Wellness – July 2019

CR.ORG GUIDE TO WELLNESS 13

them grain makes them

prone to developing liver ab-

scesses and other infections.

This system relies on antibi-

otics to fix its issues.”

Despite these challenges,

burger chains can limit anti-

biotic use in their beef sup-

ply chain, says Lena Brook,

M.E.S., interim director for

food and agriculture at the

Natural Resources Defense

Council. There may even

be a financial gain. Nearly

60 percent of those in CR’s

survey said they would pay

more at a restaurant for a

burger made from beef not

raised with antibiotics.

Some companies are get-

ting the message. Shortly

after the release of this re-

port, McDonald’s—one of

the largest beef buyers in the

world—announced plans

to reduce the use of antibiot-

ics in its global beef supply

chain. Eighty-five percent of

McDonald’s beef comes from

10 countries. The company

said it will immediately as-

sess antibiotic use by suppli-

ers in these countries. It will

develop pilot projects to re-

duce use, and then set goals

for curbing the use of the

drugs in each of the markets

by the end of 2020. Starting

in 2022, McDonald’s will

publicly report the results.

Specifically, the fast food

giant will limit the use of

antibiotics defined by the

World Health Organization as

being medically important to

treat illness in people. Pro-

ducers supplying McDonald’s

won’t be allowed to use the

drugs to promote animal

growth or prevent disease,

except in certain circum-

stances under veterinary

guidance. Sick animals can

be treated with antibiotics.

“The ultimate impact of Mc-

Donald’s efforts will depend

on the targets it develops in

the next two years, and we’ll

be watching that closely,”

says Halloran. “While con-

sumers won’t immediately

see big changes, if this plan

turns out to be as robust as

we hope and drives further

change, this would be very

significant to public health.”

Changing Attitudes

The first Chain Reaction

Report, published in 2015,

found that 20 of the top

25 chains had no policies to

limit their antibiotic use for

any meat or poultry.

In this report, the number

of chains with no policy

on antibiotic use dropped

to seven. According to Hal-

loran, that’s a lot of change

in a short time, and it may

have been driven by con-

sumers. Almost 60 percent

of the respondents in the CR

survey indicated that they

would be more likely to eat

at a restaurant that served

meat raised without anti-

biotics, and more than half

agreed that restaurants

should stop serving meat

raised with antibiotics.

Other Results from

the New Report

Three chains—Chick-fil-A,

Chipotle, and Panera Bread—

received the highest grade

of A. Almost all the meat and

poultry served at Panera

and Chipotle are raised

without any antibiotics at all.

These companies have top

scores in all four Chain Reac-

tion reports. Chick-fil-A

is the newest company to

receive a top grade. The

company says it's on track to

source all its chicken from

suppliers that don’t use anti-

biotics by the end of 2019.

Eleven companies improved

their scores from 2017, in-

cluding Jack in the Box, KFC,

and Papa John’s.

Applebee’s and IHOP (both

owned by Dine Brands

Global) implemented their

first-ever policies to address

antibiotics in both their

chicken and pork supplies,

raising their scores from

F’s to C’s.

Where's the

Better Beef?

Because of

the high use of

antibiotics in the

beef industry,

this year's Chain

Reaction report

focused on burger

restaurants. The

report produced

two scorecards:

one for the top 25

burger chains

and one for the

top 25 fast-food

and fast-casual

restaurant chains.

Two burger

chains and three

fast-casual chains

received A ratings.

Quite a few in

both categories

received failing

grades.