By Eric Christianson, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Innovation

This marks the beginning of Antibiotics Awareness Week, making it a good time to remember the importance of our No Antibiotics Ever label – which you’ll find on every PERDUE® product in the store. Choosing products with that label – and with third-party verification such as the USDA Process Verified Program -- is also a way of letting companies know that you’re concerned about the continued use of antibiotics in animal agriculture.

Antibiotic free doesn’t mean “no antibiotics”

“No Antibiotics Ever” is an important distinction amidst other, confusing claims. For example, you may hear that “all meat is antibiotic free.” Yes, government mandated “withdrawal periods” are designed to allow antibiotics to clear an animal’s system before it gets to your table. But that does not answer the question: “Is this product from a chicken that received antibiotics?”

We changed the way raise chickens so we don’t need antibiotics to keep them healthy

For us, raising chickens with no antibiotics ever means “no antibiotics needed.” Working with farmers, we changed the way raise chickens at every step. As a result, we’re the first chicken company to move all our production to “no antibiotics ever.”

If an antibiotic is needed, one of our vets will prescribe it – but that happens, on average, in less than five percent of our flocks. (Of course, those chickens won’t be sold in stores under our brand or labeled as “no antibiotics ever.”)

Not just chicken

We know that antibiotic use is a concern not only in chickens. Through some of our other brands like Coleman Natural and Niman Ranch, we also raise no-antibiotics-ever pork, and the majority of our turkeys are raised without antibiotics.

Change for the better

We weren’t the first to raise chickens without antibiotics, but we were the first major company to do so. That led to the question: “If Perdue and its farmers can do it, why can’t others?” Since then, many others have made promises to reduce antibiotic use.

We were simply listening to our consumers, who told us they were concerned about antibiotics. If you want other companies to hear your concerns, speak their language: vote with your dollars by choosing Perdue no antibiotics ever.

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