Value
The QSR company has committed to antibiotic-free beef.
 
LOS ANGELES – In-N-Out Burger is under scrutiny by almost three dozen consumer, environmental and public health groups to set a timeline for phasing out beef raised with antibiotics important to human health. Groups including CALPIRG, Friends of the Earth and the Center for Food Safety outlined their concerns in a letter to the California-based company.

The QSR chain released a statement to Reuters last year saying the chain was “committed to beef that is not raised with antibiotics important to human medicine and we’ve asked our suppliers to accelerate their progress toward establishing antibiotic alternatives.”

However, In-N-Out never set a clear timeline.

“In-N-Out can make a significant impact by eliminating all routine uses of medically important antibiotics by its beef suppliers in a timely manner,” the groups said in their letter to the company. The organizations are asking for In-N-Out to sell organic beef or domestically produced grass-fed burgers.

Starting in 2018, California will enact a new law that limits the use of medically important antibiotics in livestock operations. The law prohibits the regular use of antibiotics important to human medicine for disease prevention purposes and is intended to increase local supplies of beef raised without such drugs.