McDonald's: No more antibiotics in chicken

OAK BROOK , Ill., March 4 (UPI) -- McDonald's Corp. announced Wednesday it will use chickens raised without antibiotics and milk from cows not treated with a growth hormone.

Rival restaurants Chipotle Mexican Grill and Panera Bread use antibiotic-free chickens, but the McDonald's statement is significant because the fast-food chain has nearly nine times their number of U.S. locations.

A comment by Jonathan Kaplan of the Natural Resources Defense Council, quoted in the McDonald's announcement, said, "This is a landmark announcement in the fight to keep life-saving antibiotics working for us and our children. The country's largest fast-food chain has committed to working with their suppliers to keep these drugs out of the barns used to raise the chickens for their nuggets, salads and sandwiches. In doing so, they are setting the bar for the entire fast-food industry."

The change in chicken will be conducted over a two-year period, and the removal of milk with the artificial growth hormone recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST) will occur later in 2015. Use of rBST in milk is banned in Canada, Japan and in European Union countries, although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said BST-treated milk is safe for consumption.

McDonald's is moving to change its image in a competitive industry by positioning itself as a vendor of more wholesome meals with higher quality and more socially responsible ingredients. Restaurant franchisees were told of the change in chicken and milk policy at a Las Vegas conference Tuesday.

Scott Taylor, a McDonald's franchisee, told The New York Times that the properties of a McDonald's meal are "becoming more and more important" to customers and that the move to food untreated by antibiotics puts McDonald's "where our customers want and need us to be. You're going to see more stuff like that in the future. "