{"id":5334,"date":"2025-04-15T18:39:34","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T22:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/?post_type=publication&#038;p=5334"},"modified":"2025-04-16T16:17:26","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T20:17:26","slug":"is-antibiotic-free-meat-really-antibiotic-free","status":"publish","type":"publication","link":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/publications\/is-antibiotic-free-meat-really-antibiotic-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Is \u201cAntibiotic-Free\u201d Meat Really Antibiotic-Free?"},"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>Trusted beef brands have been deceiving consumers by selling meat products under Raised Without Antibiotics (RWA) labels that are not antibiotic-free. Using documents obtained under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, a Farm Forward investigation revealed that government regulators detected antibiotics in supposedly antibiotic-free beef, including meat sold by three of the four largest meatpacking firms that dominate the American beef market. With deceptive labeling, these three companies\u2014Tyson, Cargill, and JBS\u2014sold RWA products containing antibiotics at a higher cost to consumers than conventionally raised beef, while government regulators have taken no public or punitive actions to stop them.<\/p>\n<p>Simply put, consumers are being scammed by Big Beef, and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is knowingly letting them get away with it.<\/p>\n<p>USDA testing revealed that antibiotic residue was widespread in RWA beef, but USDA did not release the names of offending companies. This investigation uncovered how the meat industry\u2019s largest and most trusted brands drove this deception of consumers and how USDA\u2019s failure to regulate RWA labeling has made it impossible even now for consumers to make conscientious purchasing decisions.<\/p>\n<p>This brief outlines two key findings:<\/p>\n<p>1. Three of the beef industry\u2019s four largest companies deceived the public about claims that their beef is free of antibiotics, and some have continued to mark products RWA even after receiving USDA&#8217;s notice that their products contained antibiotics.<\/p>\n<p>2. USDA has deliberately maintained labeling policies that allow meat companies to mislead consumers.<\/p>\n<a class='btn btn-arrow' href='https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ABX-Brief-4.16.pdf' target='_self'>Read the issue brief<\/a>\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\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5060,"template":"","publication-category":[16,50],"class_list":["post-5334","publication","type-publication","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","publication-category-consumer-advocacy","publication-category-farming"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication\/5334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/publication"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"publication-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication-category?post=5334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}