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National Pork Board says Subway’s move to antibiotic-free meat won’t be easy

Subway announced this week it is moving to antibiotic-free meat and the National Pork Board says the fast-food giant will face incredible challenges.

On Tuesday, the company revealed plans to only serve protein raised without antibiotics, beginning with chicken in March of next year and eventually pork and beef by 2025.

The Pork Board’s Jarrod Sutton tells Brownfield Subway will have trouble keeping its supply chain full.

“It’s not easy to replicate that on swine side or on the beef side, for obvious reasons.  Number one, just the pure length of the growing period for those animals.  But two is the different types and classes of drugs that are used to take care of those animals.”

Although there isn’t a specific number, Sutton says the amount of pigs available in the U.S. that have never been given antibiotics is small.

He also wants to know what Subway plans to do with sick animals.

“Do the farmers and veterinarians not treat them?  If they do treat them, where do they go, in terms of a market and having access for those animals?  So, a lot of things to be talked about with Subway and certainly figured out.”

The food retail industry is highly competitive with companies exploring ways to carve out a niche with customers, but Sutton warns Subway may have crossed a line.

“We’ve seen that with Chipotle and some of the brand hypocrisy that we’ve seen there.  It may be a tough lesson for some of these companies to learn, but they’ll learn it.  And we’ll do our best to be a partner with those companies to help them find mutually beneficial solutions to get back on track.”

He anticipates consumers eventually seeing higher prices as Subway implements these changes while still requiring a high volume of meat.