10 Things to Know About KFC, Chicken, and Antibiotics (2024)

FAQs

What antibiotics are in KFC chicken? ›

The best and most laudable promises are those that are kept. Today, KFC announced that it fulfilled its April 2017 pledge to end the use of medically important antibiotics in its entire U.S. chicken supply.

All meat, poultry and dairy foods sold in the U.S. are free of antibiotic residues, as required by federal law - whether or not the food is labeled “antibiotic-free.” Sometimes farm animals get sick, just like people. When that happens, farmers consult with their veterinarians to determine the best treatment options.

There's a common belief that antibiotics are necessary for keeping chickens healthy and preventing illness. While this may be true to an extent, the overuse of antibiotics can lead to antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, which can have serious implications for human health.

The use of antibiotics on chicken farms not only encourages chickens to grow unnaturally large, unnaturally fast—it also poses a grave threat to human health, in the form of growing antibiotic resistance.

By law, all antibiotics are prescribed under veterinarian supervision and carefully administered to preserve the bird's health based on the specific illness. Since 2018, all chicken purchased by KFC U.S. are raised without antibiotics important to human medicine across its entire U.S. chicken supply chain.

Despite what you may hear, no artificial or added hormones are used in the production of any poultry in the United States. Regulations of the Food & Drug Administration prohibit the use of such hormones. No such hormones are used. So any brand of chicken can be labeled “Raised without hormones” or something like that.

While turkeys are given antibiotics more intensively than other livestock in the U.S., the size of the industry is much smaller than beef and pork—making those two the most problematic in terms of antibiotic consumption.

Antibiotics may be used to prevent disease and increase feed efficiency. Before the bird can be slaughtered, a "withdrawal" period is required from the time antibiotics are administered. This ensures that no residues are present in the bird's system.

Even if a chicken is given antibiotics in the course of its life to treat or prevent disease, all chicken you buy is technically “antibiotic free” – federal rules state that if any antibiotics are required, they must have cleared the birds' systems before they can leave the farm.

Chick-fil-A Modifies Its 'No Antibiotic' Chicken Policy. The fast food restaurant chain will continue to bar the use of antibiotics used to treat people but will permit the use of animal antibiotics.

Does Chick-Fil-A use hormone chicken? ›

Our chicken is raised in barns (not cages), on farms in the United States, in accordance with our Animal Wellbeing Standards, and with No Antibiotics Important to Human Medicine (NAIHM). * No artificial or added hormones are used in the production of any poultry in the United States.

The majority of the top 25 fast food and restaurant chains in the U.S. only serve chicken raised without the routine use of medically important antibiotics. In contrast, Walmart's policy does not explicitly prevent suppliers from using medically important antibiotics for disease prevention.

While the FDA has prohibited meat producers from using antibiotics to speed up growth— their original purpose in agriculture — some of the antibiotics that promote growth, like tylosin, are still allowed for disease prevention.

(WJW) — Chick-fil-A has announced it is changing the chicken it serves at all of its restaurants this spring. The plan is to switch up the requirements for the kind of chicken purchased from the current No Antibiotics Ever (NAE) to No Antibiotics Important To Human Medicine (NAIHM).

Campylobacter resistance

A primary reason for the 2005 ban on the use of fluoroquinolones in poultry production was an alarming increase in the rate of the fluoroquinolone resistance among Campylobacter bacteria.

Original Recipe® Chicken Fresh chicken. Breaded in: Wheat flour, Salt, Monosodium glutamate, Spices, Dehydrated garlic, Modified milk ingredients, Dried egg white (Egg white, Baker's yeast, Citric acid). Cooked in: Canola oil (Dimethylpolysiloxane (Antifoaming agent), TBHQ). Contains: Wheat, Milk, Egg.

Yes, KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) uses real chicken in its menu offerings. KFC's signature fried chicken is made from pieces of chicken that are breaded and seasoned with a proprietary blend of herbs and spices before being fried. The company has consistently emphasized the use of real, quality chicken in its products.

Other fast food chains, including Burger King and Popeyes, also adhere to the rule of “no antibiotics important to human medicine”.

In 2015, McDonald's introduced an antibiotics policy in the U.S. to only source chicken raised without antibiotics important to human medicine, which we completed nearly a year ahead of schedule. Farmers still use ionophores, a class of antibiotics that are not prescribed to people, to help keep chickens healthy.