Can You Really Know If That Pizza Is Antibiotic-Free?

Some of the world’s biggest restaurant chains have taken major steps to voluntarily limit the use of antibiotics in their supply chains. Customers trying to understand these new policies might need to acquire a taste for trust.

McDonald’s announced plans for changes in its chicken supply a year ago in the United States and Europe. Subway pledged to serve only meat and poultry raised without antibiotics by 2025 in its U.S. restaurants. Panera Bread, which has served chicken raised without antibiotics since 2004, and Chipotle Mexican Grill, which stepped back from its original “no antibiotics ever” after encountering pork-supply shortfalls, have been chain-restaurant trendsetters. The moves come in response to a public-health problem—antibiotic-resistant illness in humans has been declared a global crisis by the World Health Organization—as well as increasingly vocal calls from consumers to get antibiotics out of supply chains.