McDonald's has stopped using chicken injected with antibiotics in the U.S. (Photo : Getty Images)
The franchise giant has stopped selling chicken with antibiotics in the U.S. However, McDonald's in China said that they can't avoid buying chicken with antibiotics as they are avoiding intestinal disease.
According to their U.S. website on Aug. 1, the company is "completing a major commitment to only serve chicken not treated with antibiotics important to human medicine nearly a year ahead of schedule."
McDonald's U.S.A. has stopped using antibiotics in poultry after consumer groups demanded that the drugs used in treating diseases in chicken are harmful to human health.
In China, however, experts believe that antibiotics can be totally eliminated.
Zhu Yi, associate professor of food safety at China Agricultural University, believe that "it is impractical to eliminate the use of antibiotics for now."
The expert also said that "98 percent of China's current standards for veterinary drug residues in meat are parallel to or better than international standards."
He explained that of current food safety standards are followed by the manufacturers, the quality of supply in America and China is the same.
Because of McDonald's efforts in the U.S., KFC is now facing the pressure of using antibiotic-free chicken like its counterparts Chipotle and Chick-Fil-A.
Yum Foods have not made any formal statement on the shift to drug-free chicken.
In 2012, Chinese farmers were reported to use an excessive amount of antibiotics and these farmers are KFC suppliers. Yum removed about 1,000 farmers in their source list.
There are about 4,800 KFC stores in China. Other fast-food chains owned by Yum Foods are Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.
When asked for a statement, the company replied, "The chicken served in our U.S. restaurants is USDA high quality, and free of antibiotics."
The company did not give any clarification on antibiotic fed chickens in their China outlets.
