KFC has pledged to end the use of antibiotics also used in human medicine in its broiler chicken supply for U.S. restaurants by the end of 2018.
The company announced its decision on April 7.
“We’re constantly working to meet the changing preferences of our customers, while ensuring we deliver on the value they expect from KFC. Offering chicken raised without medically important antibiotics is the next step in that journey,” Kevin Hochman, president and chief concept officer for KFC U.S., said in a press release.
KFC, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, had long been under pressure to adopt a more strict policy concerning antibiotic use in its broiler supply.
The restaurant chain had received a “failing” grade in the report, Chain Reaction – How Top Restaurants Rate of Reducing Use of Antibiotics in their Meat Supply, for two consecutive years. A shareholder group for Yum! Brands in August 2016 asked the company to eliminate the use of antibiotics in its meat and poultry supply.
Yum! Brands also operates Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants, both of which in 2016 announced a move away from antibiotics important in human medicine in its broiler supply.
As Yum! Brands’ largest purchaser of chicken meat, the commitment to transition the supply was more difficult to meet. There are more than 20,000 KFC outlets in more than 125 countries and territories across the world.
“Making this change was complex and took a lot of planning. It required close collaboration with more than 2,000 farms, most of them family-owned and managed, in more than a dozen U.S. states where they raise our chickens,” Hochman said in the release.
Hochman added that the company will be able to make the change without passing along a change in product price to its customers.
The greater trend moving away from human antibiotics
While a number of quick service restaurant (QSR) chains have committed to phase out the use of human antibiotics in its broiler supply – including Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King and Tim Hortons -- few that specialize in chicken dishes have made such a pledge.
Chick-fil-A became the first chicken specialty QSR to make a pledge concerning antibiotics, announcing in 2014 that it would service chicken raised without antibiotics at all of its U.S. restaurants within five years.
Another potential antibiotics-related change could be coming to another major chicken QSR, Popeyes. While the chain does not currently have a policy concerning antibiotic use in its broiler supply, Restaurant Brands International (RBI) has announced a pending acquisition of Popeyes, which is expected to close this month.
RBI is the parent company of Burger King and Tim Hortons. The company announced that it would transition away from antibiotics important in human medicine at all U.S. restaurants by the end of 2017 and all of its Canadian restaurants by the end of 2018, but that announcement was made prior to when it announced plans to acquire Popeyes.
RBI has not yet revealed whether the antibiotics pledge will also apply to Popeyes, which has about 2,600 locations across the U.S. and 25 other countries.
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