Last week, officials at Subway said that the fast-food chain plans to switch to chicken raised without antibiotics by next year, but antibiotic preservationists are frustrated by the lack of details from the company. The Natural Resources Defense Council, Keep Antibiotics Working, U.S. PIRG, Center for Food Safety, Food Animals Concern Trust, Consumers Union and other groups are calling on Subway to set firm goals and share them with the public. The groups want Subway to define a time-bound action plan to phase out routine antibiotics use, immediately end the routine use of antibiotics important for human medicine in the production of chicken, and adopt third-party auditing of its antibiotics use. “The company’s lack of transparency — including its refusal to meet with public interest organizations about this issue — leaves us uncertain of its commitment to change,” read a statement by the Center for Food Safety. Before Subway’s announcement, several of the groups, including CFS, NRDC and U.S. PIRG, had launched petitions to get the company to commit to buying meat and poultry from suppliers that don’t routinely administer antibiotics to their livestock. Other chains that have committed to serving antibiotic-free chicken include Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s, Chipotle and Panera. (To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)
