A Taste of Wellness for Savoury and Snacks
Givaudan
McDonald's, the world's largest fast food hamburger chain, has frequently faced the wrath of scientists and health professionals over the quality of its food, and this week is no exception.
While the chain has garnered praise for its decision to cook its fries using a new oil which significantly reduces the amounts of trans fatty acids - a type of fat which is known to be a major risk factor for heart disease - it has at the same time come in for severe criticism for not reducing the levels of antibiotics in the meat it uses.
In a week when the use of antibiotics in meat has made the headlines almost every day on FoodNavigator.com, McDonald's has been fiercely criticised by the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists - a non-profit partnership of scientists and citizens which focuses on areas of importance to human health and the environment - for continuing to buy chickens which have been fed with antibiotics when most of its major rivals - such as Subway and KFC - have stopped doing so.
"If McDonald's wants to improve public health, it should stop contributing to the unnecessary use of millions of pounds of antibiotics each year," said Michael Khoo, an analyst for the UCS. "Our antibiotics deserve a break today."
The concern is that the continued use of these antibiotics in the food chain will lead to the spread of bacteria which are resistant to the drugs, with serious implications for human health.
UCS estimates that the poultry industry feeds 10.5 million pounds of antibiotics and related drugs to healthy chickens every year to promote growth and to compensate for unsanitary conditions on factory farms. This overuse of antibiotics in poultry contributes to the loss of efficacy of drugs that are used to treat serious diseases in people, including food poisoning. The US group's warnings echo those of the UK-based Soil Association, which earlier this week warned about the use of antibiotics in poultry raised in Britain.
The UCS said that Subway, KFC, Hardees, Domino's and Dairy Queen had recently announced new purchasing policies to reduce the use of medically important antibiotics in poultry production because of these fears, but that McDonald's, the second largest buyer of chicken meat in the US after KFC, had so far failed to follow suit.
"McDonald's failure to follow its rivals on this issue is at odds with a social responsibility report, released by the company last spring, which said 'we agree with experts that [antibiotic] use should be managed in order to minimise their impact on antibiotic resistance in humans'," the UCS said. "Yet McDonald's continues to purchase poultry raised with non-therapeutic, medically important antimicrobials. Earlier this year, McDonald's did halt the purchase of poultry raised with fluoroquinolone antibiotics, which are used on a small percentage of chicken flocks."
"Despite public health concerns about antibiotic resistance, McDonald's is slow to change its fast food," Khoo said. "McDonald's could reduce the threat of antibiotic resistance by refusing to purchase chickens that have been fed excessive amounts of antibiotics."
McDonald's has so far failed to respond to the criticism from the UCS, but for a company which prides itself on its customer service, it is inconceivable that the chain will not follow the move of other restaurant chains and stop buying chickens fed with antibiotics. More grist to the mill for the antibiotic debate…