Cooks Venture will regularly test all chicken flocks for the presence of antibiotic use, the company announced.
“I feel like the onus is on the person making the claims,” said Matt Wadiak, CEO, Cooks Venture. “If you’re making a claim to be antibiotic-free, somebody should be showing a third-party test that says this is actually antibiotic-free and we can prove it.”
In recent years, a growing number of poultry producers have pledged to go antibiotic-free in response to consumer concerns about the rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
How the testing will work
A third-party audit will test multiple birds from each chicken house for the seven drug families that represent many common antibiotics and adulterants added via feed or water. The testing platform uses lateral flow, the same technology used by pregnancy tests, to detect even low levels of a substance and is conducted on liver, kidney and muscle tissue.
“They actually go and pick birds right out of the chicken house in the field. We don’t know which birds they’re going to pick, which houses they’re going to go to, but every flock is tested,” he added.
Verified “No Antibiotics Ever” label
The pasture-raised chicken producer plans to add a verified “No Antibiotics Ever” label to products sold in the U.S. immediately to provide transparency and assurance to consumers worried about antibiotic resistance, according to a press release.
The label includes a QR code that leads shoppers to information on the drug families tested, testing statistics to date and additional data specific to Cooks Venture.
“Don’t you deserve from your retailer to purchase the thing you said you were going to be purchase? Shouldn’t it be verified by the people that you are purchasing it from?” Wadiak said.
“Our theory is to go to market with our products, Cooks Venture chicken, and also sell genetics in the future in a bird that can live and exist without reliance on pharmaceuticals and also taste great.”
The announcement will make the Cooks Venture the first in the poultry industry to launch a verified “No Antibiotics Ever” label backed by testing, the company said.
