I was right around the corner from a Chick-fil-A when I lived in Hotlanta — and quickly became addicted. These days I no longer support any type of fast food, simply because of my many labor and safety objections in regards to how they ”conduct business.” However, when one magically opened up directly next door to my office a few weeks back, it prompted me to shoot them a message…
Hi there – I love Chick-fil-A! I used to eat there all the time when I lived in Atlanta. But, I will not eat anywhere that continues to purchase their chicken from inhumane suppliers, or who use ANY type of antibiotics on their chicken. Can you assure me that Chick-fil-a meets my standards?
thanks,
Brian
I didn’t really care for this response, but Rome wasn’t built in a day…
Dear Mr. Sofer:
Thank you for taking the time to contact Chick-fil-A. You are very important to us, and we appreciate your inquiries regarding the chicken that is served in our restaurants. We hope the following information will be helpful.
Chick-fil-A is proud to have many long-standing business relationships with our chicken suppliers. At this point-in-time, we have five suppliers. Our suppliers have plants in the South, Southeast, and Southwest from which we use product. All of these suppliers have continuous USDA inspections.
Chick-fil-A works diligently to keep the quality, cleanliness, and exact specifications of our products up to the level demanded by our customers. Therefore, we are continually visiting our chicken supplier’s facilities, making sure they are reaching our high level of quality requirements.
In addition, the National Chicken Council publishes a set of guidelines for the proper and humane raising and processing of chickens. All of our suppliers abide by these guidelines and some of them were instrumental in helping to develop these standards for the whole industry.
At farm level, antibiotics are only administered to prevent and control disease. A “withdrawal” period is required from the time antibiotics are administered before the bird can be processed. This ensures that no residues are present in the bird’s system. All chickens produced for Chick-fil-A are processed under the continuous USDA inspection program. Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) randomly samples poultry at slaughter and tests for residues.
Again, thank you for your time and interest in Chick-fil-A.
Sincerely,
Tamara
Chick-fil-A CARES
About a day or two before their grand opening, a CFA marketing person stopped by. She had been visiting the local businesses and handing out promotional coupons and drumming up customers. I asked her about using antibiotic free and humanely raised chicken and told her I had emailed the site and got a lame ass response. She told me the best thing to do was to continue to send emails because it’s more ‘voices’ — more ‘volume.’
Please, join me, write Chick-fil-A and Tamara. Encourage them to use antibiotic free chicken and organic ingredients.
