Our turkey breast and chicken is raised without antibiotics as a routine feed additive and our hamburgers are made from natural beef.
The declining effectiveness of antibiotics against common bacterial infections is a growing crisis in human medicine. This decline stems from heavy use of these precious medicines not just in human medicine, but also in agriculture. By some estimates, 70 percent of the antibiotics used in this country are fed to farm animals that are not sick, in order to promote growth or prophylactically treat diseases caused by questionable animal husbandry practices. As a socially responsible company, Bon Appétit is committed to helping address the public health threat from antibiotic resistance.
In 2002 Bon Appétit formed a partnership with Environmental Defense Fund to look at decreasing antibiotic use in meats and poultry. As a result, we issued the farthest reaching policy on antibiotics use to date: Bon Appétit only buys chicken raised without the "non-therapeutic" routine use of human antibiotics as feed additives. This policy was extended to turkey breast in 2005, making us the first restaurant company to take a stand on antibiotic use in turkey production.
As of March 2007 all of the hamburgers we serve are made from "natural" ground chuck. While there is no strict legal definition of "natural," our suppliers commit to using:
- No antibiotics (ever)
- No added growth hormones (ever)
- No animal by products in feed (ever)
- Humane treatment
As viable commercial supplies of other reduced antibiotic meats become available, we will expand our preference for these wholesome products.
