Backlash ensues as Chick-fil-A reveals big change to famous chicken sandwich

Chick-fil-A is facing growing backlash over a huge announcement it made last week about its famous chicken products.

In an announcement posted to its website, the popular fast-food franchise revealed that, because of supply issues, it’ll be shifting away from serving “chicken raised with No Antibiotics Ever (NAE).”

Instead, the restaurant will in the spring begin serving chicken “raised with No Antibiotics Important to Human Medicine (NAIHM).”

What’s the difference?

“NAE means no antibiotics of any kind were used in raising the animal.,” according to Chick-fil-A. “NAIHM restricts the use of those antibiotics that are important to human medicine and commonly used to treat people, and allows the use of animal antibiotics only if the animal and those around it were to become sick.”

In a statement to Fox News, a Chick-fil-A spokesperson defended the controversial move.

“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,” the spokesperson said.

This move comes exactly 10 years after Chick-fil-A reportedly switched to antibiotic-free chicken in 2014 and five years after it finally met its “goal of serving antibiotic-free chicken at all” its restaurants, according to Fox News.

The problem is that the restaurant’s customers are now used to antibiotic-free chicken and aren’t happy about going back.

Look:

Despite the backlash, the fact remains that there are certain benefits that chickens raised with NAIHM boast over chickens raised with NAE.

“NAIHM allows producers the flexibility to treat sick animals [with antibiotics], while being respectful to the role that food animal production plays in the world of antibiotic resistance and the idea of our entangled health systems,” according to Southland Organics.

Interestingly, this move by Chick-fil-A comes months after Tyson Foods — which is reportedly the restaurant’s chicken supplier — announced a similar policy decision.

“Tyson Foods, Inc. is changing its ‘no antibiotics ever’ (NAE) production policy and claim to ‘no antibiotics important to human medicine’ (NAIHM), according to a company spokesperson,” Food Business News reported in July.

“The company will add ionophores, which are antibiotics not considered important to human health, into the diets of some of its chickens used to produce fresh products as well as frozen and ready-to-eat branded products. … [I]onophores are often used in poultry diets to prevent intestinal disease in poultry, specifically, coccidiosis,” the site added.

This move by Chick-fil-A also comes amid the huge controversy over Tyson Foods firing a bunch of American workers and replacing them with asylum-seeking migrants:

This decision by Tyson Foods also sparked massive backlash — backlash that is now being extended to Chick-fil-A and the many other restaurants that the company supplies.

Case in point:

Vivek Saxena

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