Food Animal Concerns Trust

Around a decade ago, major fast-food companies like McDonald's, Subway, and Taco Bell pledged to cut the routine use of antibiotics in raising animals for their meat products.

The public widely lauded their efforts, yet these companies have failed to meet key commitments, and they remain silent on whether they're still pursuing set targets, finds a new report by advocacy groups the Food Animal Concerns Trust and USPIRG Education Fund.

Antibiotic resistance in farm animals.

About sixty-six percent of all medically important antibiotics in the United States, or those that can be used in human medicine, are given to animals raised for food.

Empty promises? Following pressure from consumers and advocacy groups in the mid to late twenty-tens, fast-food companies McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Subway committed to cutting the use of antibiotics in chickens and cows that their suppliers raise for their meat products.

These companies all achieved their goals of eliminating medically important antibiotics in their chicken products sold in the United States, according to the report, but they're falling short of their goals for beef.

"When it came time to fulfill the commitment, they didn't do anything," Stephen Roach, a co-author of the report and director of the Safe and Healthy Food Program at the Food Animal Concerns Trust, tells Sentient.

In twenty-eighteen, two years after McDonald's announced it had stopped using medically important antibiotics in its US poultry supply, the company set a twenty-twenty target for establishing antibiotic reduction targets in its beef.