{"id":4900,"date":"2024-02-27T12:39:15","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T17:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/?p=4900"},"modified":"2024-02-27T12:39:17","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T17:39:17","slug":"farm-forward-is-pushing-meat-companies-to-take-action-on-antibiotic-usage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/news\/farm-forward-is-pushing-meat-companies-to-take-action-on-antibiotic-usage\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm Forward is Pushing Meat Companies to Take Action on Antibiotic Usage"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<section class=\"normal_content bg-white padding-top-small padding-bottom-large\" style=\"\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"row center-md\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"col-md-7\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"content-styled\"><p>Millions of Americans buy meat products marketed as \u201craised without antibiotics.\u201d Globally, the market for antibiotic-free meat is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.persistencemarketresearch.com\/market-research\/antibiotic-free-meat-market.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">growing significantly<\/a>, likely in response to consumer concerns about the overuse of antibiotics on farms and how that impacts public health. In 2022, Farm Forward published an explosive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/news\/farm-forward-finds-drugs-in-certified-meat-at-whole-foods\/\">investigation<\/a> that found an antibiotic in meat labeled as \u201craised without antibiotics.\u201d Following that investigation, we have pushed for changes to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/news\/usdas-latest-changes-to-meat-labels-are-a-step-in-the-right-direction-but-more-is-needed\/\">government regulation<\/a> to ensure that meat labels and marketing are accurate. While we believe that the USDA must step in forcefully to regulate antibiotics in meat, we aren\u2019t waiting for the government to act.<\/p>\n<p>Starting in 2023, Farm Forward reached out to a number of food companies and retailers\u2014including companies like Trader Joe\u2019s, Walmart, Publix, and more\u2014to urge them to protect consumers and improve farmed animal welfare. Specifically, Farm Forward sent leaders of these companies a letter asking them to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mandate that their suppliers test their &#8220;raised without antibiotics&#8221; meat products for antibiotics at certified, independent labs with high sensitivity (i.e., parts per billion).<\/li>\n<li>Discontinue sales of products from suppliers who fail to provide assurance of accurate labeling.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Companies that sell meat\u2014including retailers, restaurant chains, and food service providers\u2014should take action to ensure that they maintain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/news\/farm-forward-survey-humanewashing-erodes-consumer-trust\/\">consumer trust<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Retailers like Publix, Walmart, and Trader Joe\u2019s sell products with labels like \u201cRaised Without Antibiotics\u201d and \u201cNo Antibiotics Ever.\u201d Some companies go further and claim that they sell mostly or only products raised without antibiotics. Retailers like Sprouts Farmers Market and Panera Bread, which have reputations for being committed to more \u201cnatural\u201d foods, have explicit antibiotic policies for meat products (e.g., see Sprouts\u2019 page for its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sprouts.com\/healthy-living\/sprouts-butcher-shop-100-grass-fed-beef\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">beef butcher shop<\/a>, which claims cattle \u201cand are never given antibiotics or added hormones \u2026 ever!\u201d). Unless companies test animals to ensure antibiotics aren\u2019t present, we believe consumers should be skeptical of those claims.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We\u2019ve reached out to these companies encouraging them to take action on the usage of antibiotics in their supply chain. If they\u2019re going to market products as antibiotic free, then they ought to put in the effort to verify that the claims are true.<\/strong> \u00a0As companies respond we will update you about whether the companies have policies in place to ensure that you can trust their \u201cantibiotic free\u201d labeling and marketing.<\/p>\n<p>Among the companies we have engaged with are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Applegate<\/li>\n<li>Aramark<\/li>\n<li>ButcherBox<\/li>\n<li>Compass Group USA<\/li>\n<li>Food Lion<\/li>\n<li>Harris Teeter<\/li>\n<li>Meijer<\/li>\n<li>Natural Grocers<\/li>\n<li>Panda Express<\/li>\n<li>Publix<\/li>\n<li>Sprouts Natural Grocer<\/li>\n<li>Sweetgreen<\/li>\n<li>Target<\/li>\n<li>The Fresh Market<\/li>\n<li>Trader Joe\u2019s<\/li>\n<li>Walmart<\/li>\n<li>Wegmans<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antibiotics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}