Top U.S. Broiler Producers Define a Tipping Point for "Antibiotic-Free" Products

by Hillary M. Bisnett 

While we have been tracking the growing number of public commitments by McDonalds, Subway, Panera, Costco, and many others who have announced intentions to source and sell meat raised without antibiotics, it’s been tough for our network of hospitals to identify and access these products. But there’s a breakthrough in sight and health care’s purchasing power could help tip the scale. 

This July at the Poultry Science Association’s annual meeting, a panel of poultry industry veterinary and nutrition experts were asked whether they thought the industry was at a tipping point.  

“[A] large segment of poultry buyers, food service distributors, and wholesalers who purchase chicken in large volumes for food service outlets that are less in the public eye aren’t demanding antibiotic-free products yet…If it does, then we’re done,” said Dr. G. Donald Ritter, director of health services at Mountaire Farms Inc. “If food service wants [a no-antibiotics-ever] product, then all of us are going to make it [and] the price premium is going to crash when the volume goes up.”

This is great news for hospitals, schools and other institutional food buyers who want to purchase better meats but haven’t been able to access or afford them. Now is the time to communicate that shared demand.

For health care, just one day begins to the paint the picture. Last year, 270 healthcare facilities celebrated Food Day by serving more than 235,000 meals that featured meat and poultry raised without the routine use of non-therapeutic antibiotics. These facilities serve more than 90 million meals annually.

In 2008 around 40% of hospitals surveyed reported they were purchasing meat produced without the use of antibiotics and hormones. Now in 2015, Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth found that more than half of hospitals surveyed were purchasing meat and poultry products raised without routine antibiotic use, and were spending an average of nearly 15% of their food budget on local and sustainable foods. Representing nearly 18% of the economy, the health sector has the power to help shift the entire marketplace, benefiting public health and making products safer for all consumers.

While hospitals have had success achieving benchmarks through alternative buying pathways such as purchasing directly from small- and mid-scale producers, we see an opportunity for health care to partner with their vendors like foodservice management companies, food distributors and group purchasing organizations to incorporate these producers and make a lasting change around the use of routine antibiotics in animal agriculture. 

Health care has proven that there is demand for these products and that it continues to grow. The aggregated voice of cross-sector collaboration among schools, colleges and universities as well as other large wholesale buyers further demonstrates this demand. Now it’s time for large-scale producers to respond with the supply. That’s just basic economics.


Hillary M. Bisnett is the National Procurement Director of Health Care Without Harm's Healthy Food in Health Care program.