Burger King and Popeyes are now adding their names to the growing list of companies and fast food chains pledging to discontinue the use of antibiotics in their chicken supply. Restaurant Brands International, Inc., which also owns Tim Horton’s, said the new policy would apply to all of the company’s brands by the end of 2018.
The fast food chains join the likes of McDonald’s, KFC, Tyson, and Perdue in their pledge to go “antibiotic free.”
According to the National Chicken Council, a “No Antibiotics Ever” or “Raised without Antibiotics” label is typically only one of a company’s product lines. The association says consumers need to know: A no antibiotics program is not a magical program for producing disease-free birds. Rather, it’s a program which intends to raise birds without antibiotics and labels those which are successfully raised without antibiotics as such. Those chickens that must be treated with antibiotics are labeled with another designation.
As this Sanderson Farms video reiterates, antibiotic-free chicken is the law. Even if a chicken is given antibiotics in the course of its life to treat or prevent disease, the bird must go through a withdrawal time before leaving the farm.
