MEAT+POULTRY - June 2015 - 12

BUSINESS NOTES

TAKING POSITIONS ON ANTIBIOTICS
Count Joe Sanderson Jr., chairman and CEO of the poultry
processor Sanderson Farms, as being on the opposite side
of the current movement by such chicken processors as
Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms and Pilgrim's Pride to shift
away from the use of antibiotics in poultry production.
Donnie Smith, president and CEO of Tyson Foods, said
the April 28 announcement of its plans to eliminate the use
of human antibiotics from its broiler chickens by 2017 has
nothing to do with similar initiatives by its customers or
competitors and everything to do with addressing a global
concern without compromising
animal well-being.
Earlier in April, Pilgrim's Pride
Corp., a unit of JBS SA, announced
plans to eliminate antibiotics from
25 percent of its poultry production
by the end of 2018.
In addition, other major
companies in the producer, retail
and foodservice segments have
announced timetables by which
Donnie Smith
Mario Rodriguez
antibiotics will be eliminated from
food supplies. For example:
* Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's
US announced in March the
company's intention to only buy
chickens raised without antibiotics.
* Costco Wholesale Corp. said
in March that the company is
working with poultry suppliers
and regulatory agencies to
develop a strategy for eliminating
the use of antibiotics in its poultry
supply chain.
Joe Sanderson Jr.
* In January, Perdue Foodservice,
a unit of Perdue Foods based in
Salisbury, Md., announced plans to bring its no-antibioticsever chicken products to the K-12 segment.
But Sanderson Farms is taking a different path.
"This is not something that we take lightly," Sanderson
said May 12 during a presentation at the Goldman Sachs
Global Staples Forum. "And frankly, after doing our
homework, we do not plan to withdraw antibiotics from
our program, and there are three main reasons."
Reason No. 1, Sanderson said, is animal welfare.
"We feel like we need to take care of the animals in
our care," he said. "There's one thing that you cannot take
care of if you don't use antibiotics and that is enteritis in
the chicken." Enteritis is a gut condition that may make
chickens sick or even kill them. Sanderson said there
is nothing currently available or coming in the future to

MEAT+ POULTRY | 06.15 | www.meatpoultry.com

address the condition, and he couldn't imagine "having a
diagnosis, knowing what's wrong with them and not taking
care of them."
"Particularly when there's no evidence whatsoever
that using these antibiotics really does cause antibioticresistant bacteria," he said. "There's no evidence. And
even the people that have made the announcements that
they were going to stop using antibiotics say there's no
evidence that this causes antibiotic-resistant bacteria."
Second, Sanderson said ceasing the use of antibiotics
does not fit with his company's programs focused on
sustainability and environmental responsibility.
"It's going to take more chicken houses, more
electricity, more water, more acres of corn, and more
acres of soybeans," he said. "So you're going to have to
grow these chickens longer and use all that to achieve the
same market weight."
Finally, Sanderson said ceasing the use of antibiotics
would have an effect on his company's food safety efforts.
"We have all been busting our behinds to reduce the
microbiology loads, the microorganism loads, on these
chickens coming to the plants," he said. "And everybody
knows what happened in Europe when they took
antibiotics away. All those loads went up on the chicken.
"So you're talking food safety. You take antibiotics
out, and you're going to have more Campylobacter, more
Salmonella, and all that coming into your plant."

USDA FINALIZES RULE ON
MECHANICALLY TENDERIZED BEEF
Packages of beef that have been mechanically tenderized
will be required to bear new labels and cooking
instructions, the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the
US Dept. of Agriculture announced this past month.
Under the "Descriptive Designation for Needle
or Blade-Tenderized (Mechanically Tenderized) Beef
Products," mechanically tenderized beef must bear labels
that identify the product as mechanically, blade or needle
tenderized. Additionally, the labels must also include
validated cooking instructions so that consumers know
how to safely prepare the products. Cooking instructions
must specify the minimum internal temperatures and any
hold or "dwell" times for the products to ensure they are
always fully cooked.
The new labeling requirements become effective in May
2016 or one year from the date of the rule's publication in
the Federal Register. FSIS accelerated the effective date
because of the public health significance of the change.
The rule would have been effective in 2018 if the agency
had waited until the next Uniform Compliance Date for
Food Labeling Regulations, which is in January 2018.
FSIS developed the rule because of its significance to

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MEAT+POULTRY - June 2015

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