Hardees rejects 'antibiotic free' chicken label for 'no antibiotics" label

I’ve grown accustomed to paying close attention to the exact phrasing in press releases whenever a restaurant company announces a change regarding things such as antibiotic use, cages in egg production and slower-growing broiler chickens. In most cases, it signals a lack of understanding about production techniques in animal agriculture and a likely concession to animal rights and other special interest groups.But a recent press release from CKE Restaurants Holdings, the parent company of fast food restaurant chains Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., made me realize that some restaurant company executives do understand, or at least, are making an effort to understand.The company on March 28 announced that the charbroiled chicken filet sandwich would come from birds raised with “no antibiotics ever.”It’s so refreshing to see a company use that phrase, rather than “antibiotic free,” which of course means nothing, since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has strict guidelines that animals be taken off of antibiotics for a period of time before they enter the food supply.