The parent company made the same commitment in March.
The deadline is the end of 2018, but is not a complete ban
on antibiotics – only those used in human medicine.
That means ionophores can still be used.
There has been an increasing volume of antibiotic-free
chicken being produced in Ontario, mainly clients of Fischer Feed Mills in
Listowel. Its clients supply the Loblaws supermarket chain.
The Toronto-based company noted that all of the chicken
served at its 1,400 restaurants comes from Canadian chicken farmers and it
plans to work with those suppliers to implement new antibiotics policy.
Chick-fil-A Inc. has a five-year plan for phasing out chicken treated with antibiotics from its supply chain; Pilgrim’s Pride is one of its supplier.
