Whitbread plc

Whitbread's policy on antibiotics use is part of their broader Animal Welfare Policy and included in their Responsible Sourcing Policy Fish and Seafood. The company has also developed species specific standards for beef, pork, fish and seafood.

Whitbread's has an overarching policy stating their commitment to reducing antibiotics use ""is universal for all our relevant species including beef, pork, lamb, poultry, turkey, dairy, seafood and laying hens". This is supported by the development of individual standards for beef, pork, fish and seafood.

Their policy covers all relevant operating and sourcing markets.

The company states that "medicines including antibiotics will only be used where it is absolutely necessary to ensure good health and welfare. Substances such as growth promoter hormones will never be used". Prophylactic use is not permitted, and the company is employing strategies to reduce antibiotic use, particularly those classified as critically important to human medicine. In their response to FAIRR, Whitbread stated their focus is "specifically on the reduction of Highest Priority Critically Important Antibiotics (HP-CIA), as defined by the European Medicines Agency. In practice this means limited use of fluoroquinolones, 3rd and 4th generation cephalosporins, and colistin i.e. where no other product will be effective for the condition being treated ". Whitbread has confirmed that their policy is only on critically important antibiotics to human medicine.

Although the company has yet to set public time-bound commitments for implementation, Whitbread has indicated that work is underway to define these, and they confirmed their intention to publicly disclose antibiotics use on either beef or pork by 2020.

Whitbread does not currently disclose data relating to antibiotics usage. However, the company has indicated that they are in the process of gathering relevant data for beef and pork, and once the robustness of the data has been verified Whitbread confirmed its intention to disclose information on at least one of the two species by 2020.

Whitbread confirmed third-party audits are carried out by an independent consultant, which is NFS. The company has a dedicated team that sits in their office with technical experts. NFS audits against Whitbread standards. Documentation is required for all animals e.g. cows have passports which states whether antibiotics were used, any disease the animal has had during its life, withdrawal times of medication etc. Supplier audits are scheduled based on the results from risk-based assessments and previous audit results. The review process is currently ongoing.

Whitbread responded providing insightful answers to all questions. The company met with the investor coalition. Their response is available here.