McDonald's Corporation

McDonald's has published a Global Vision for Antibiotic Stewardship in Food Animals, which is supported by individual statements on antibiotic use for chicken and beef.

The company currently has policies in place for chicken, beef and dairy beef.

McDonald's has confirmed that their chicken policy applies to more than 85% of their global chicken supply chain, and their beef and dairy beef policy covers more than 85% of their global beef supply chain.

The company's commitments vary slightly for different species and regions. For chicken, their US policy is stronger than in other markets given all chicken now served in the U.S. is free from medically important antibiotics. McDonald's policy on chicken is focused only on eliminating the routine use of antibiotics defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as Highest Priority Critically Important to Human Medicine (HPCIA). For beef and dairy beef, McDonald's prohibits the routine use of medically important antibiotics across its top 10 beef sourcing markets. Underpinning all these policies is the company's Global Vision for Antibiotics Stewardship in Food Animals, which states the company's focus on reduction of medically important antibiotics as defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and that routine prevention use of antibiotics is not permitted. Coccidiostats and Ionophores are explicitly excluded. The company has adopted a tiered approach to implementing its species-specific policies. In the U.S., McDonald's has achieved its commitment to serve broiler chicken that is free of antibiotics important to human medicine by 2017. Implementation of this policy across other markets began in January 2018. The aim is to eliminate Highest Priority Critically Important to Human Medicine (HPCIAs) in Australia and Russia, and Colistin in Europe by January 2019. For the rest of their international designated markets, the target is to eliminate HPCIAs by January 2027. For its beef and dairy beef supply chain, the company is partnering with suppliers in their top 10 beef sourcing markets to measure and understand use. By the end of 2020, McDonald's will establish reduction targets for medically important antibiotics and by 2022 will report on progress for these markets.

The company has adopted a tiered approach to implementing its species-specific policies. In the U.S., McDonald's has achieved its commitment to serve broiler chicken that is free of antibiotics important to human medicine by 2017. Implementation of this policy across other markets began in January 2018. The aim is to eliminate Highest Priority Critically Important to Human Medicine (HPCIAs) in Australia and Russia, and Colistin in Europe by January 2019. For the rest of their international designated markets, the target is to eliminate HPCIAs by January 2027. For its beef and dairy beef supply chain, the company is partnering with suppliers in their top 10 beef sourcing markets to measure and understand use. By the end of 2020, McDonald's will establish reduction targets for medically important antibiotics and by 2022 will report on progress for these markets.

Although McDonald's reports on general progress which point to the fact that work is underway to gather the necessary data, it does not yet report on quantity of antibiotics used.

For chicken, U.S. suppliers are audited under a USDA Process Verified Program (PVP) protocol. For beef, the company states that antibiotic use compliance will be monitored using per valid herd health systems that are third-party audited in all top 10 markets covered by their policy. McDonald's has stated that they have "partnered with the Farm Animal Initiative (FAI) in Oxford UK for both our chicken and beef antibiotic work. FAI is acting as the administrator of our antibiotic use tracking programs for beef and chicken and in the case of chicken collecting all antibiotic use information from the farm level for those markets that are in scope, processing, analysing and then reporting back to McDonald's progress made, or where there are opportunities for improvement. In this manner, FAI as an independent consultant, is acting as an independent 3rd party collecting, analysing and reporting results".

McDonald's did not respond to the investor letter, but in lieu of a written response the company provided an update to FAIRR over the phone. However, the company has not met with the investor coalition.