Tyson Pulls 'No Antibiotics' Ads and Labels

6/3/2008

Tyson Foods Inc. says it will "voluntarily withdraw" advertising and labels claiming that its poultry products don't contain antibiotics, after a federal court issued an injunction stopping the practice.

The company says it notified the U.S. Department of Agriculture it would stop using the "raised without antibiotics" chicken label. Tyson said it asked the USDA, which previously had approved the slogan, to start "a public process to bring more clarity and consistency to labeling and advertising rules" on antibiotic claims. Tyson had claimed it based the slogan on the absence of any antibiotic believed to affect humans.

After approving the advertising, the USDA later told Tyson that, when it approved the no-antibiotics label, it had mistakenly overlooked additives called ionophores that are used in feed for Tyson's chicken. Regulators said the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service has a long-standing policy of classifying ionophores as antibiotics. Tyson disagreed, saying the U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not consider them antibiotics.

"We still support the idea of marketing chicken raised without antibiotics because we know it's what most consumers want," Tyson Senior Vice President Dave Hogberg says. "However, in order to preserve the integrity of our label and our reputation as a premier company in the food industry, we believe there needs to be more specific labeling and advertising protocols."

U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett in Baltimore had set a May 15 deadline to stop Tyson from running any of the advertisements. The injunction came after competitors Perdue Farms Inc. and Sanderson Farms Inc. sued, claiming Tyson's advertising was misleading. Tyson had appealed Bennett's ruling, but the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., denied a motion by Tyson to stay the order in May.

Sanderson, based in Laurel, Miss., has argued it lost a $4 million account to Tyson because of the advertising campaign, and Salisbury-based Perdue claims it has lost about $10 million in revenue since last year.

"The company does not use antibiotics for the purpose of growth promotion," the Tyson statement read. "On those rare occasions when antibiotics are used to treat an illness, it is on a prescription-basis only to protect birth health."

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