The well-known restaurant company Chick-fil-A, which mostly sells chicken, just said that they will be changing their chicken. Because of the change, they can’t offer antibiotic-free chicken like they used to.
Ten years ago, Chick-fil-A created a “No Antibiotics Ever” policy, which meant that they would never use chickens that were raised with antibiotics. They are switching to a new model called “No Antibiotics Important To Human Medicine.” This model says that antibiotics can be used on sick animals but not on people.
A company representative who talked about the change said that they were worried about supply problems and being able to find chicken that had been given antibiotics. This meant that Chick-fil-A would still serve “real, white breast meat with no added fillers, artificial preservatives, or steroids.”
Antibiotics can be in food, but the Federal Drug Administration has rules about it. You can treat animals with them the same way you treat people, but there are some bad affects that could happen, which is why there are limits.
“Animals raised for food can spread germs that can make people sick, like Salmonella and Campylobacter.” The CDC says that bacteria in animals’ guts that are resistant to medicines can continue to live and grow.
So, when the animals are processed, they may be exposed to and spread bacteria that are immune to antibiotics. These bacteria can make people sick. The USDA even says that most chickens will have to go through a withdrawal time to get rid of any antibiotics that are still in their bodies.
