McDonald's to Stop Using Antibiotics on its Chicken, Trying to Gain Customers Lost to Panera, Chipotle

McDonald's announced Wednesday that it will soon stop buying chicken raised with antibiotics that are also used to treat human infections, according to a new report.

"We're listening to our customers," Marion Gross, the senior vice president of McDonald's North American supply chain, told Reuters in an interview.

Antibiotics are usually added to animal feed, mainly for their growth-promoting effects. While the practice benefits the farmers, scientists and public health advocates have long warned that over-use of antibiotics can engender the development and spread of drug-resistant pathogens.

Now only chicken raised without antibiotics "important to human medicine" will be sold at the chain's roughly 14,000 U.S. locations, Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald's said in a statement Wednesday.

"Our customers want food that they feel great about eating," explains McDonald's U.S President Mike Andres in a statement, "all the way from the farm to the restaurant - and these moves take a step toward better delivering on those expectations."

McDonald's is experiencing its worst sales in five years and is working hard to win younger customers that are migrating to restaurants like Chipotle and Panera Bread Co., which emphasize the quality of their ingredients.

"Our customers want food that they feel great about eating -- all the way from the farm to the restaurant -- and these moves take a step toward better delivering on those expectations," McDonald's U.S. President Mike Andres said in the statement.

However McDonald's will still use ionophores, a type of antibiotic not used for humans that helps keep chickens healthy.