McDonald’s said on Wednesday that it is broadening its move away from serving chicken fed with certain antibiotics.
The company said it will no longer buy chicken raised in other countries that has been treated with antibiotics also used by humans and deemed important to fighting serious infection. Two years ago, McDonald’s announced a similar policy for its U.S. suppliers.
Under the new blueprint, McDonalds will stop purchasing poultry treated with a small number of antibiotics that the World Health Organization has said often are the only drugs available to fight serious infections in humans.
McDonald’s said it will gradually expand the policy over the next decade to include other drugs and other animal products, including beef and pork.
The transition will begin next year with chicken purchased in Brazil, Canada, Japan, South Korea and Europe, and expand the following year to Australia and Russia, the company said. A first-year exception for one type of antibiotic used by European suppliers also will be eliminated by the second year, the company said.
“We view this progress as significant milestones in our food journey, where we can achieve impactful change on a key issue, and we feel that these timelines give McDonald’s and suppliers the ability to set credible, achievable goals,” the company said in a statement.
The company’s move away from antibiotics in its U.S. supply chain was considered an epic shift in food policy, given its enormous footprint and influence in the fast-food industry. McDonald’s since has shifted toward using eggs raised in facilities that don’t confine chickens to small cages.
