What’s in your fast food?

• Neighborhoods and News
• September 29, 2017

Everyone knows that most fast food isn’t always the healthiest option for food, but hey, it’s fast for a reason! Even in moderation, eating some of your favorite fast food restaurants can have long term repercussions. Not for your weight or diet, either.

Antibiotics for animals are normally used to prevent illness in crowded and unsanitary industrial farming conditions, and to accelerate weight gain. When it comes to giving animals antibiotics, the drugs may kill a number of bacteria, but some may harbor a gene that makes them resistant to the drug. The CDC estimates that, every year, 2 million Americans contract antibiotic-resistant infections every year and 23,000 Americans die as a result.

A report on fast food released on Wednesday covered the top 25 largest US food chains and their stand on antibiotics. Rated on a grade scale, Chipotle and Panera Bread received A’s for the third year in a row. Luckily, more companies passed this year, but 11 still received an F and took “no action to reduce use of antibiotics in supply chain”.

Out of the 11 companies that failed, 9 of them did not respond for comment on the original article by CNN. While 11 failed, that is a better score than last year where 16 companies failed.

The idea of reducing the use of antibiotics is to prevent any “superbugs” from forming with an immunity to antibiotics. If you’re eating those meats loaded with antibiotics, the resistance could enter your body. When you get sick with an infection, your body could be immune to the antibiotics and potentially make you sicker.

Below is a list of the food chains and their grades. For those that received F’s, this is their third year in a row of receiving an F. Other higher scores have either improved since last year or maintained a steady position with animals and antibiotic usage.