McDonald's Cuts Fat in Fries, Fails to act on antibiotics

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October 1, 2002

 

McDonald's Cuts Fat in Fries, Fails to

Act on Antibiotics

 

Fast Food Giant Fails to Follow Rivals in Halting Unnecessary Antibiotic

Use in Chicken 

 

McDonald's today introduced reduced-fat French fries in its U.S.

restaurants. However, the company remains behind the curve on another

public health issue - the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Major

fast food companies, including Subway and KFC, have recently said they

will not buy chicken fed medically important antibiotics for

nontherapeutic purposes.  But McDonald's, the second largest U.S.

chicken buyer after KFC, has adopted no new policy.

 

" If McDonald's wants to improve public health, it should stop

contributing to the unnecessary use of millions of pounds of antibiotics

each year, " said Michael Khoo, an analyst for the Union of Concerned

Scientists. " Our antibiotics deserve a break today. "

 

UCS estimates that the poultry industry feeds 10.5 million pounds of

antibiotics and related drugs to healthy chickens every year to promote

growth and to compensate for unsanitary conditions on factory farms. 

This overuse of antibiotics in poultry contributes to the loss of

efficacy of drugs that are used to treat serious diseases in people,

including food poisoning.

In light of the public health threat of antibiotic resistance, Subway,

KFC, Hardees, Domino's and Dairy Queen recently announced new purchasing

policies to reduce the use of medically important antibiotics in poultry

production. In a statement, KFC said the company " does not purchase

poultry treated nontherapeutically with medically important

antibiotics. "

 

McDonald's failure to follow its rivals on this issue is at odds with a

social responsibility report, released by the company last spring, which

said, " we agree with experts that [antibiotic] use should be managed in

order to minimize their impact on antibiotic resistance in humans. "   Yet

McDonald's continues to purchase poultry raised with nontherapeutic,

medically important antimicrobials. Earlier this year, McDonald's did

halt the purchase of poultry raised with fluoroquinolone antibiotics,

which are used on a small percentage of chicken flocks.

 

" Despite public health concerns about antibiotic resistance, McDonald's

is slow to change its fast food, " Khoo said.  " McDonald's could reduce

the threat of antibiotic resistance by refusing to purchase chickens

that have been fed excessive amounts of antibiotics. "