As the world in general and the United States in particular strive for a more natural and organic diet free of outside agents, there's growing concern with the breeding of poultry with human antibiotics, with a wave of companies vowing to take their chicken off of them - most recently, Tyson Foods' antibiotics.
A few months ago, Food World News reported on McDonald's decision to have their served chicken for nuggets and other products completely off antibiotics, as the world goes through a "superbug" scare in which it's thought that the constant consumption of Tyson Foods antibiotics could make the body develop resistance to them, giving way to new ones.
Giving human antibiotics to chicken, pigs and cattle is a long-lasting tradition in farms around the world that has gone on for decades, as it makes the animals grow faster and cheaper, however, the practice has grown controversial over the possibility of creating resistance and being exposed due to, which is the reasoning behind Tyson Foods' antibiotics move.
Now, according to CNN, the latest move in the middle of the scare comes from Tyson Foods' antibiotics stand, as the company announced earlier this week that they were working to eliminate human antibiotics from their chickens in the next two years, in an attempt to do their part in the antibiotic-resistant infections of late.
NPR reports that Tyson Foods' antibiotics move is at least the third of its kind, as other poultry companies such as Perdue and Pilgrim's Pride have already made it clear that they'd be phasing out antibiotics in their chicken in the next couple of years.
Tyson Foods' decision marks a major step in the fight against the superbug scare, as it's the biggest poultry company in the country and the second biggest in the world.
"We don't have all the answers," said Christine Daugherty, the head of sustainable food production at the company, regarding the new Tyson Foods antibiotics stand. "But we want to make sure that antibiotics continue to work."
