News

NRDC turns up the heat on KFC's antibiotic use

May 17, 2016

TheNatural Resources Defense Council is serious about stopping routine antibiotic use in agriculture and is taking the fight to the Colonel's doorstep. It's launching a national campaign to get Kentucky Fried Chicken, owned by Yum! Brands, to phase out the practice, daring the brand to follow its competitors' lead. Although the KFC website said it's planning to follow the FDA's phase-out plan of growth-promoting antibiotics next year, the NRDC doesn't believe that will fully address the problem as it "Permits the use of the same drugs to help birds survive unhealthful living conditions." 

"KFC's antibiotics policies are not finger lickin' good for public health," Lena Brook, food policy advocate at NRDC, said in a company press release. "With fast food restaurants increasingly serving meat raised with better antibiotics practices, KFC is lagging behind competitors like Chick-Fil-A and its sister company, Taco Bell. As the nation's largest fast food chicken chain, KFC has an opportunity and responsibility to help stem the growing epidemic of drug-resistant infections by cleaning up its antibiotics policies."

The NRDC said KFC uses antibiotics to aid in chicken growth and disease prevention in farm environments, which are unhealthy, and is urging the brand to commit to purchasing only chicken raised without routinely using antibiotics that are key in treating humans.

Other leading chains, including McDonalds, Subway and Chick-Fil-A, have committed to stopping the practice among those handling chickens in their supply chains. It also pointed out that fast casual restaurants, such as Chipotle and Panera Bread, have been raising antibiotic-free chicken for years.

KFC's sister brand  — Taco Bell — announced last month it would eliminate antibiotics usage in its foods by early 2017, after the NRDC and more than 80 other public interest organizations made the request via a letter to Yum! Brand chairman. NRDC is hoping KFC will follow suite. 

Why NRDC is pushing this:

According to the NRDC, more than 70 percent of antibiotics that are critical to keeping people well are also sold for use on livestock; more than 96 percent of those drugs are given to the animals in their food and water even when they're not sick to speed growth and help them to survive in unsanitary, crowded conditions on factory farms.

As a result, NRDC believes that numerous medical experts have said that many bacteria have become resistant to drugs and that at least 2 million people in the U.S. get antibiotic-resistant infections every year. Those infections result in about 23,000 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.​

As of press time, KFC had not responded to QSRWeb.com request for comment.