Chicken and other poultry products are consumed in the US in high amounts, with data from 2023 showing that 118.7 pounds of chicken was consumed per capita. With so much poultry, people are bound to think about how they can make more ethical food choices while still being able to eat what they like.
A food product that has ethical labels is Foster Farms Free Range Chicken Breast Fillets. The ethical labels that it contains are “No added hormones or steroids” and “No antibiotics”, and these labels are regulated by the USDA. “No added hormones or steroids” means that the chicken was not given any growth hormones that affected its growth, and “No antibiotics” means that they were not fed any antibiotics that could transfer to the final product.
The USDA states that hormones are prohibited in raising hogs or poultry, so the “No added hormones or steroids” label CANNOT be used on poultry unless it is explicitly followed by a statement that says, “Federal regulations prohibit the use of hormones.” The label “No antibiotics” can only be used on poultry labels if sufficient documentation is provided by the producer to the USDA demonstrating that the animals were raised without antibiotics.
Citations:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/183645/per-capita-consumption-of-poultry-in-the-us-since-2000/
https://www.fosterfarms.com/product/boneless-skinless-breast-fillets-with-no-antibiotics-ever/
Image from Google