Hands down, one of the best fast food restaurant chains around is Chick-fil-A. I’m not just saying that because I’m a Christian who loves the fact the company is owned by other believers and closes shop on Sundays to allow folks to attend worship services. They really do have great products and extremely good service. I highly recommend their chicken sandwiches and fries complete with the traditional Chick-fil-A sauce.
That being said, the popular restaurant chain just announced that it would be making a shift from antibiotic-free chicken beginning this spring due to supply reasons. This is unfortunate, but what else can they do when there just aren’t that many chickens available to create their products with?
“To maintain supply of the high-quality chicken you expect from us, Chick-fil-A will shift from No Antibiotics Ever (NAE) to No Antibiotics Important To Human Medicine (NAIHM) starting in the Spring of 2024,” the announcement revealed, according to Fox Business.
A specific deadline has not yet been set or announced for the upcoming change.
According to the Chick-fil-A website, NAE means no antibiotics of any kind were used in the raising of the animal, while NAIHM “restricts the use of those antibiotics that are important to human medicine and commonly used to treat people, and allows use of animal antibiotics only if the animal and those around it were to become sick.”
Chick-fil-A had previously switched to antibiotic-free chicken in 2014, eventually meeting its goal of serving antibiotic-free chicken at all chain restaurants in 2019.
“As we looked to the future, the availability of high-quality chicken that meets our rigid standards became a concern. This change enables us to not only ensure we can continue to serve high-quality chicken, but also chicken that still meets the expectations our customers count on us to deliver,” a Chick-fil-A spokesperson said to Fox News Digital in a statement.
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The announcement concerning the change in their policy was also sent out to those who use the company’s app. Everything has an app these days it seems, but hey, for the most part, they do increase the convenience of the ordering process.
Chick-fil-A isn’t the only big restaurant chain to make the switch away from antibiotic-free products. Panera Bread was forced to switch its pork and turkey products, stating that their policy was limiting its supply options.
Tyson Foods announced last summer that it was also reintroducing certain antibiotics to its chicken supply chain, having previously gone antibiotic-free in 2017.
It’s important in a situation like this to have grace on the restaurants we frequent and realize they are only doing the best they can with the cards they’ve been dealt. Of course, if you have a strong conviction over not eating animal food products that were treated with antibiotics, then you have to stand by what you believe. All we can do at this point is hope the situation gets straightened out soon and these establishments can return to their policies and ensure the highest quality products for their customers that they can.
The good news is, these kind of shortages are usually short-lived.