McDonald’s USA has announced new menu sourcing initiatives including only sourcing chicken raised without antibiotics that are important to human medicine.
In addition, McDonald’s US restaurants will also offer customers milk jugs of low-fat white milk and fat-free chocolate milk from cows that are not treated with Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin or rbST, an artificial growth hormone.
The fastfood chain has been working closely with farmers for years to reduce the use of antibiotics in its poultry supply.
This new policy supports the company’s new Global Vision for Antimicrobial Stewardship in Food Animals introduced in March 2015, which builds on the company’s 2003 global antibiotics policy and includes supplier guidance on the thoughtful use of antibiotics in all food animals.
All of the chicken served at McDonald’s approximately 14,000 US restaurants comes from US farms which are working closely with McDonald’s to implement the new antibiotics policy to the supply chain within the next two years.
While McDonald’s will only source chicken raised without antibiotics important to human medicine, the farmers who supply chicken for its menu will continue to responsibly use ionophores, a type of antibiotic not used for humans that helps keep chickens healthy.
In another move, McDonald’s US restaurants later this year will offer milk jugs of low-fat white milk and fat-free chocolate milk from cows that are not treated with rbST.
The milk jugs are popularly available in Happy Meals.
“While no significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rbST-treated and non-rbST-treated cows, we understand this is something that is important to our customers,” said Marion Gross, SVP of McDonald’s North America Supply Chain.
All of these actions are the latest steps in McDonald’s USA’s journey to evolve its menu to better meet the changing preferences and expectations of today’s customers.
In addition to the menu sourcing changes, McDonald’s USA this week was announced as a founding member of the newly formed US Roundtable on Sustainable Beef.
This engagement supports the company’s global commitment and effort to source verified sustainable beef.
