Revising Our Responsible Antibiotics Policy
Simplifying our purchasing standards to reflect positive changes and push for more progress in the marketplace
Bon Appétit Management Company has long been aware of the threat to public health posed by the animal agriculture industry’s routine abuse of antibiotics — to promote faster-than-normal growth and to prevent disease in healthy animals. Since 2003, we have enacted various purchasing standards to support producers who are using antibiotics responsibly.
In January 2019, following extensive consultation with experts at the Center for a Livable Future at John Hopkins University, we announced a revised purchasing policy designed to streamline what had been a patchwork of standards by species, as well as to reflect positive changes in the marketplace and to continue pushing the industry forward.
Bon Appétit Management Company is committed to supporting farms whose practices eliminate the need for routine antimicrobials. (“Antimicrobials” is a more comprehensive term for the class of drugs that includes antibiotics) We believe strongly that good farm-animal health should rely on healthy living conditions for the animals, not drugs. Our new purchasing standard companywide is to buy only meat, and poultry, and seafood raised without the use of antimicrobials except where necessary to treat sick animals in the documented presence of disease in the flock, herd, or fish population as verified by a veterinarian.