Dive Brief:
- Cargill stopped using gentamicin, an antibiotic for both humans and animals, for disease prevention in turkeys for its two largest brands, Honeysuckle White and Shady Brook Farms, as of Aug. 1.
- Those turkeys, which will still receive other antibiotics for disease control and treatment, will hit store shelves by Jan. 1.
- Cargill also announced a new completely antibiotic-free turkey product line, Honest Turkey.
Dive Insight:
As "antibiotic-free" becomes a more common claim made on meat packaging, more manufacturers may consider ways to limit antibiotics use in their own operations. Companies like Perdue, Tyson and Pilgrim's Pride have already made commitments to reduce or eliminate certain antibiotics across their entire chicken supply chains. Cargill itself has devised a way to use essential oils to reduce or replace use of antibiotics in poultry.
But Cargill is demonstrating another option. Meat processors and manufacturers can create a separate antibiotic-free line with its own branding to appeal to consumers specifically looking for that claim on meat packaging while still continuing other brand operations in a similar manner. Perdue has done something similar with its own No Antibiotics Ever line of chicken products.
Still other companies, such as Sanderson Farms, have taken a different route. Sanderson Farms recently launched an ad campaign that aims to address common misconceptions about antibiotics and explain why the company wants its chickens to be healthy and safe first, not necessarily antibiotic-free.
Pharmaceutical companies may have another option for manufacturers: vaccines for farm animals. In theory, vaccines could prevent the illnesses that necessitate the need for antibiotics to treat and control diseases in the first place. Less use of shared-use antibiotics in the supply chain could reduce the risk of antibiotic-resistant superbugs impacting human health.
However, vaccines cannot replace all antibiotics, because they do not effectively prevent all diseases—especially if the cause isn't yet clear to researchers. Also, just as certain consumers avoid vaccine use for humans, they may also not want vaccines used in the food supply. This could start an entirely new debate over whether vaccine-treated food animals can still be considered "natural" — or even give rise to the "vaccine-free" meat claim.