A&W was first in Canada to offer Beef free from hormones and steroids, Chicken free from antibiotics and Eggs from hens fed on a diet free from animal by-products. Now, the Canadian branch of the company is first with Bacon from hogs raised without the use of antibiotics…
The A&W Canada Pork Promise.
Susan Senecal, President and Chief Operating Officer of A&W Canada, said, in a statement. “Mornings can be hard, and A&W wants to make them a little easier. At A&W, we love good food and are on a mission to improve our menu and serve food that ‘fast foodies’ can feel good about.”
Not as easy as you may think…
You might think that antibiotic-free pork was just natural next step in offering healthier fast food products. But it’s not as east as you may have assumed. Swine are traditionally prey to a host of afflictions and diseases that other kinds of livestock are not bothered by. Hog farmers must take great care in how they house, feed and care for their animals. This is especially true when sows are pregnant and weaning. To raise hogs without the use of antibiotics must constitute a really steep learning curve and a major investment in changes to farmers’ infrastructure and procedures.
The change also requires that enough farmers make the change to supply the tonnes and tonnes of pork products a fast food chain needs annually to operate. That can take a lot of time. I can see where the change to antibiotic-free pork was the last to be instituted by A&W. It was the hardest one to implement!
So…
A&W has scooped the other Fast Food guys again, on a commitment to healthier menu items. That’s not surprising, I guess, since they are the smallest of the big Fast Food outlets. They have a correspondingly smaller requirement for any given raw ingredient and, therefore can be expected to gear up production to required levels first.
but good on them, anyway, for pushing ahead and going antibiotic free on all their meats. In a world where we are seeing diseases – especially allergies – rising alarmingly and super bugs coming forward that are immune to the antibiotics we rely on now to fight disease, we need major users of meats products to lead the way on the demand side and stop this scourge on our population and our health care system.
~ Maggie J.