Kari Hamerschlag, Senior Program Manager of the Food and Technology Program at Friends of the Earth joins us to talk about top fast food chains using meat with antibiotics. Kari unveils a scary new report on Late Night Health about How Top Restaurants Rate on Reducing Use of Antibiotics in Their Meat Supply. Mark Alyn and Kari discuss several high profile campaigns urging Subway, the world’s largest restaurant chain, to adopt a clear policy restricting the routine use of antibiotics in its supply chain.
“From bacon cheeseburgers to chicken nuggets, most meat served by America's chain restaurants comes from animals raised in industrial-scale facilities, where they are routinely fed antibiotics to prevent disease that is easily spread in crowded, unsanitary, stressful conditions. The surprising news is McDonald’s has been given a passing grade!
McDonald's got a C, which is passing, because last year they adopted a new policy with their chicken. They made a commitment to stop sourcing chickens with antibiotics by 2016. Their policy only applies to their chicken not the other meat therefore they got a C. They also made a commitment and have not verified that is a 100% change.
There are several restaurant chains who are not being transparent about the meat that they source and you cannot find any information online. These are: Olive Garden, Papa John's, Applebees, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, etc... These type of restaurants got and F on their score card.
Only 5 companies have really solid policies on the books and are being transparent with their customers about what they are doing.
Chipotle was the top restaurant who got an "A" - 100% of the meat the source are without antibiotics.