Chick-fil-A is ditching its antibiotic-free chicken pledge after just 5 years

• Chick-fil-A will start serving some chicken that has been raised with antibiotics.
• Under the new policy, animal antibiotics can be used if the chicken and those around it are sick.

Chick-fil-A is dropping its ban on serving chicken that has been raised with antibiotics, 10 years after first announcing the pledge and five years after it implemented it.

"To maintain supply of the high-quality chicken you expect from us, Chick-fil-A will shift from No Antibiotics Ever (NAE) to No Antibiotics Important To Human Medicine (NAIHM) starting in the Spring of 2024," the chicken chain said.

Under the new standards, Chick-fil-A said that chicken antibiotics could be used, but only if the chicken and those around it were sick.

"If the animal does become ill, it will be treated with antibiotics not intended for humans," Chick-fil-A said. "In accordance with FDA requirements, all antibiotics must be cleared from the chicken's system before it is considered available for the chicken supply."

The new approach "restricts the use of those antibiotics that are important to human medicine and commonly used to treat people," Chick-fil-A said.

The change will affect Chick-fil-A's restaurants in the US, Puerto Rico, and Canada, it said.

Chick-fil-A previously banned all antibiotics in the raising of its chickens. It said it had implemented its No Antibiotics Ever policy in all its restaurants in May 2019, about five years after it announced the commitment.

A spokesperson told the AP that Chick-fil-A had had concerns about its ability to acquire supplies of chicken that had been raised without antibiotics. Last year, Tyson Foods — the US' biggest chicken supplier — said it was retreating from its No Antibiotics Ever pledge by reintroducing some antibiotics not important to human health.

Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A has more than 3,000 restaurants across the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico and plans to expand into Europe and Asia by 2030.