December 21, 2007

Tyson finds suitable label for antibiotic-free chicken

Tyson Foods introduces an apt label for its chicken product after it ran into a snag with USDA when it introduced a marketing campaign believed to be misleading.

The USDA previously approved the ''raised without antibiotics'' chicken label, but later the department recanted and said it had made a mistake.

Now Tyson has come up with a new label that has satisfied federal regulators. It will read, ''Chicken raised without antibiotics that impact antibiotic resistance in humans.''

Tyson will phase in the new labels over the next several months.

Agriculture officials said they changed their minds about the first label when they realized that Tyson was feeding its chickens animal medications called ionophores, which the agency considers antibiotics.

In a letter on November 6, agriculture officials gave Tyson 45 days to change its label or the feed it uses for its chickens.

Tyson officials said they would continue to use ionophores, which they note are approved by the federal government as a safe feed ingredient to prevent intestinal illness in chickens.

The company said ionophores do not spur bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics used to treat human disease.

Tyson Foods is one of the largest US chicken producers (with 53 processing plants). Its purchase of beef and pork giant IBP Fresh Meats made it the largest meat-processing company in the world.