Food Service Company to Avoid Antibiotic-Laden Foods

Bon Appétit to buy only antibiotic-free chicken.

Bon Appétit, a food service company that provides café and catering services to corporations, colleges, universities and specialty venues, says that by June 2004 it will only buy chicken produced without the "routine use of medically important antibiotics," according to a Dec. 11 article at GreenBiz.com. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company also plans to apply a "purchasing preference" to procure meat, dairy and seafood produced with reduced amounts of antibiotics.

The company wants to encourage meat suppliers to use antibiotics only on sick animals because antibiotics are currently misused in farm animals. "Bon Appétit purchases a significant amount of meat, seafood, and dairy a year, and we call on the producers that supply our company to protect human health by reducing the amount of antibiotics they use," states Fedele Bauccio, Bon Appétit CEO, in the article.

New York-based advocacy group Environmental Defense(ED) helped Bon Appétit draft its new policy. ED also had a hand in a similar resolution announced by McDonald's last summer. GreenBiz points out that the Bon Appétit policy mirrors bipartisan legislation introduced in both houses of Congress last summer.