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Foster Farms Joins Wave Against Antibiotics

Foster Farms, one of the largest poultry producers in the U.S., has joined the ranks of companies cutting back on non-medical use of antibiotics for its chickens.

The company said in a statement that it would introduce two new product lines, Foster Farms Certified Organic and Foster Farms Simply Raised, that would be free of antibiotics used in human medicine, except as a last resort in cases when the health of the flock is threatened.

The move comes just one month after poultry giant Tyson Foods announced it would discontinue use of human antibiotics by September 2017. Pilgrim's Pride Corp, the second largest chicken producer in the U.S., plans to stop using human antibiotics in its flock and to cut back on all antibiotics by 25 percent by 2019.

McDonald's announced in March that it would stop selling chicken treated with human antibiotics within two years, and last year Chick-fil-A said it would phase out chicken raised with any antibiotics over the next five years.

Foster Farms has not announced a timeline for its proposed changes.

The company came under sharp criticism after a massive outbreak of antibiotic-resistant salmonella was tied to its poultry products in the spring of 2014, triggering a recall.

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