Only 3 Fast-Food Chains Still Serve Meat With Zero Antibiotics

The use of antibiotics in meat is a hot button topic, with many fast-food companies setting goals and making promises to limit the antibacterial agents used in their food supplies. Despite these efforts, as of January 2025 there are only three major fast-food chains in the U.S. that use no antibiotics in their beef and chicken, and only two of those companies use zero antibiotics for any meat or ingredient, period.

"Scientific evidence demonstrates that overuse of antibiotics in animals can contribute to the emergence of antibiotic resistance," says Dr Kazuaki Miyagishima, Director of the Department of Food Safety and Zoonoses at WHO. "The volume of antibiotics used in animals is continuing to increase worldwide, driven by a growing demand for foods of animal origin, often produced through intensive animal husbandry."

So which fast-food chains get a gold star for their no-antibiotics policy?

Shake Shack is clear about their strict animal welfare policy: Absolutely none of its U.S. beef, chicken, pork, or dairy has antibiotics, animal by-products, or sub-therapeutic antibiotics. "Shake Shack stands by the National Milk Producers Federation's standard of not tail-docking dairy cows. We also encourage our suppliers to use selective breeding of dairy cows to eliminate the need for dehorning. Additionally, we prohibit rBST/rBGH in our fluid dairy supply," the company states.

BurgerFi is also adamant about zero use of antibiotics in its beef. "Our beef is a part of the 'Never-Ever' program, free-range, humanely-treated, and raised on vegetarian diets. It is never exposed to steroids, antibiotics, growth hormones, chemicals, or additives – Ever," the company states. "Only about 1% of the beef produced in the United States meets the strict BurgerFi standard."

Chipotle has extremely high standards for their meat suppliers, with a caveat—while there is no antibiotics in their beef or chicken, the company acknowledges some of their pork supply included pigs that were treated with antibiotics. This is obviously not a perfect situation, but still vastly better than the standards in other restaurants. Here's how the company explains it:

"At Chipotle, we're not only committed to making real food from real ingredients that you can pronounce but also raising the bar for locally sourced produce and responsibly raised animals," the company says. "We source cheese and sour cream from pasture-raised cows that are never administered rBST, and meats from animals that have no added hormones and that do not receive non-therapeutic antibiotics. In 2021, antibiotics were never administered to the animals used for our beef and chicken, and for 87% of our pork. Animals that are sick get the medical treatment they need in all cases, and although most of our suppliers remove animals that have received antibiotics from our program, 13% of our pork in 2021 came from farms that allow pigs to stay in our program even if they received antibiotics to treat a diagnosed illness."

With antibiotic-resistant bacteria considered a significant threat to public health, let's hope other restaurant chains follow Shake Shack, BurgerFi, and Chipotle's example.