Fast Food Chains That STILL Serve You Antibiotic-Filled Meat After Chic-fil-A U-Turn – and What This Means for YOUR Health
A staggering number of popular fast-food chains still use antibiotics in their meat, including major fast-food chain Chick-fil-A, which announced it will rescind a promise to remove the drugs from its chicken.
The restaurant franchise will use meat treated with antibiotics from next month as there will be a lower supply of chicken during the turnaround.
But it is far from the only popular chain selling products containing traces of the drugs, contributing to the global threat of antibiotic resistance.
Antibiotic resistance, responsible for millions of deaths worldwide every year, describes the process by which common bacteria evolve and are unaffected by antibiotics used to kill them.
It means that insects on meat that cause food poisoning, such as salmonella and campylobacter, can become indestructible.
DailyMail.com has identified several chains that still use meat raised with antibiotics, including Burger King, Starbucks, Jack in the Box and Dairy Queen.
Chick-fil-A had previously promised to phase out the use of antibiotics but, citing a supply problem, decided to drop that pledge in favor of a more limited pledge to use antibiotics rarely used by humans.
A Consumer Reports investigation found that a long list of fast-food chains use meat, mainly beef, that has been treated with antibiotics. The use of antibiotics in livestock can contribute to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Antibiotics are very effective in treating infections in animals slaughtered for food.
Cattle usually have to wait a few days before being slaughtered to reduce the amount of medicine that seeps into the meat.
While there is no immediate, direct harm from consuming antibiotic-treated meat, it can help promote resistant bacteria.
This makes it much harder for drugs to eliminate bacterial infections – and could mean a simple case of food poisoning becomes fatal.
A previous FDA analysis of pet foods found that of 30 antibiotics used across species, 18 posed a high risk of exposing people to antibiotic-resistant bacteria through food.
Meanwhile, the CDC estimates that 2.8 million antibiotic resistant Infections occur every year in the US.
About 660,000 of these are caused by resistant forms of salmonella and campylobacter, two bacteria commonly spread by animals slaughtered for food.
The global public health community, including organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), identifies antibiotic-resistant bacteria as one of the leading threats to public health worldwide.
According to the CDC, at least 35,000 people in the United States die each year from antibiotic-resistant infections. However, other estimates indicate that this number could be much higher, with possibly more than 160,000 deaths per year.
Chick-fil-A said they serve ‘Only real, white breast meat with no added fillers, artificial preservatives or steroids.
Like other chickens in the United States, ours contains “no added hormones.”
Other food chains have pledged to reduce the amount of antibiotics in their meat offerings.
Taco Bell, for example, is aiming for a 30 percent reduction by 2030.
In a report from Consumer Reports, the Natural Resources Defense Council assessed efforts by Taco Bell, IHOP and Applebees to reduce medically important antibiotic use. in their meat supply chains as ‘D’ for antibiotics in beef.
The report states: “As some of America’s largest meat buyers, fast-food restaurants can and should take action to preserve our life-saving medicines for the future by requiring their meat suppliers to practice responsible antibiotic use.
“About a quarter of all medically important antibiotics sold in the U.S. are for use in livestock production, which, along with swine, accounts for more than half of all U.S. antibiotic sales.
Burger King, Starbucks, Olive Garden, Panda Express, Little Caesars, Dominos, Sonic, Arbys, Jack in the Box, Dairy Queen, Buffalo Wild Wings and Pizza Hut all scored ‘F’ grades.
Chick-fil-A isn’t the only restaurant chain that has gone back on its promise to eliminate antibiotics from its meat.
Tyson Foods, which processes about 20 percent of all chickens in the U.S., abandoned its “no antibiotics ever” pledge last July.
The Arkansas-based company had previously become the largest poultry processor to eliminate the use of all antibiotics in the company’s nuggets, wings and breasts.