(CNN) -- A popular American fast food restaurant wants you to
"Eat mor chikin" without antibiotics.

Chick-fil-A Inc. announced plans Tuesday to use chicken raised
without antibiotics in all of its restaurants within five years.

National and regional poultry suppliers are partnering with the
company to stock up. Chik-fil-A wants these suppliers to
collaborate with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ensure
the chickens do not receive any antibiotics.

"Since our family business began 67 years ago, we have focused
on our customers. It's why we insist upon using the highest
quality ingredients," Dan Cathy, president and chief executive
officer of Chick-fil-A, said in a statement. "We want to
continue that heritage, and offering antibiotic-free chicken is
the next step."

Chick-fil-A is a privately owned company with 1,700 locations in
39 states and Washington. It deems itself the "second largest
quick-service chicken restaurant chain in the United States."
The company produced sales of $5 billion in 2013, the
announcement said.

What's the big deal about antibiotics?

Antibiotics are used in livestock to prevent disease as well as
to assist with growth of the animals. In 2011, about 29.9
million pounds of antibiotics were sold for meat and poultry
production. By comparison, 7.7 million pounds were sold for
human use, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Chick-fil-A's announcement comes amid a growing awareness about
the problem of antibiotic resistance. The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration has said that antibiotics in livestock are
contributing to the rise of dangerous bacteria. Many antibiotics
that farmers give food-producing animals are also used to treat
sick humans.

The FDA announced a plan in December to phase out certain
antibiotics in the food production industry.

"Because all uses of antimicrobial drugs, in both humans and
animals, contribute to the development of antimicrobial
resistance, it is important to use these drugs only when
medically necessary," the FDA said on its website.

FDA hopes to curb antibiotic use on farms

The National Chicken Council said the Chick-Fil-A move is a
"business decision" and that many organization members offer
poultry lines without antibiotics to provide a choice for
consumers.

"Antibiotics are not always used in chicken production; rather,
they are administered to prevent and treat disease, only under
the care of a licensed veterinarian," said Ashley Peterson,
National Chicken Council vice president of scientific and
regulatory affairs, in a statement.

"The science shows that responsible and judicious use of FDA-
approved antibiotics to treat and prevent disease in livestock
and poultry is both safe and effective."

Companies responding to health concerns

Chick-fil-A has made other changes to its ingredients in recent
years, such as removing yellow dye from its chicken soup. The
company is also testing the possibility of taking out other food
additives, including artificial ingredients in the buns and high
fructose corn syrup in dressings and sauces.

Those developments, announced late last year, came after food
blogger Vani Hari wrote about controversial ingredients in Chik-
fil-A's products. The company responded by inviting her to its
headquarters, and Hari posted to her blog in 2012 that she'd had
a four-hour meeting there with company executives. Among the
topics covered: The use of antibiotics in their chicken, she
said.

How 'Food Babe' helped persuade Subway to remove chemical from
bread

Hari also recently launched a petition to get the sandwich chain
Subway to remove a chemical called azodicarbonamide, also found
in yoga mats and shoe soles, from its breads. Subway announced
last week that it was in the process of taking azodicarbonamide
out "as part of our bread improvement efforts."

In addition, the food blogger has shown her power in the pasta
arena.

After Hari posted a petition on Change.org, Kraft said in
November that it would remove Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6 dyes
from some varieties of its Macaroni & Cheese products. The color
additives will be nixed from pastas shaped like SpongeBob
SquarePants, Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and "How
to Train Your Dragon 2" from Dreamworks, a company spokeswoman
told CNN.

Kraft removing artificial dyes from some mac and cheese

Other popular petitions for more healthful products are ongoing.

Concerned mother Renee Shutters partnered with the Center for
Science in the Public Interest to start a campaign directed at
M&Ms. The Change.org petition wants Mars Inc. to stop using
artificial dyes in the candies.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/11/health...fil-a-chicken-
antibiotics/

On Wed, 12 Feb 2014 18:25:01 +0100, Kane York wrote:

> (CNN) -- A popular American fast food restaurant wants you to "Eat mor
> chikin" without antibiotics.
>
> Chick-fil-A Inc. announced plans Tuesday to use chicken raised without
> antibiotics in all of its restaurants within five years.
>

This presents a real conflict for me. I applaud a restaurant chain, like
Chick-fil-A, putting pressure on the industry to curtail the
inappropriate use of antibiotics. I would like to patronize them to show
my support. However, last I heard, the CEO of Chick-fil-A was using his
organization to promote discrimination against homosexuals, which is
something I strongly protest.

Of course, the battle against homosexuals is all but over, but I still
would not feel right giving my money to an anti-humanist cause.

It is a similar situation with Papa John's Pizza. I used to love their
pizza, but once the CEO went on the warpath against health care reform, I
can no longer, in good conscience, give him my money. Fortunately, there
are LOTS of other pizzerias that are just as good.

In article >,
MarkA > wrote:

> On Wed, 12 Feb 2014 18:25:01 +0100, Kane York wrote:
>
> > (CNN) -- A popular American fast food restaurant wants you to "Eat mor
> > chikin" without antibiotics.
> >
> > Chick-fil-A Inc. announced plans Tuesday to use chicken raised without
> > antibiotics in all of its restaurants within five years.
> >
>
> This presents a real conflict for me. I applaud a restaurant chain, like
> Chick-fil-A, putting pressure on the industry to curtail the
> inappropriate use of antibiotics. I would like to patronize them to show
> my support. However, last I heard, the CEO of Chick-fil-A was using his
> organization to promote discrimination against homosexuals, which is
> something I strongly protest.
>
> Of course, the battle against homosexuals is all but over, but I still
> would not feel right giving my money to an anti-humanist cause.
>
> It is a similar situation with Papa John's Pizza. I used to love their
> pizza, but once the CEO went on the warpath against health care reform, I
> can no longer, in good conscience, give him my money. Fortunately, there
> are LOTS of other pizzerias that are just as good.

Yeah, I've bitten the bullet and chosen to get my pizza from small
chains like Raffallo's or local mom & pop pizzaria's. I like Raffalo's
because they put plenty of garlic on their garlic pizzas (there's no
such thing as too much garlic, of course).

--

JD

"If our country is going broke, let it be from
feeding the poor and caring for the elderly.
And not from pampering the rich and fighting
wars for them."--Living Blue in a Red State (seen on Facebook)