Restaurant Chains That Still Serve Meat Containing Antibiotics

We all try to turn a blind eye when we eat out. But when it comes to the meat on your plate and the antibiotics behind it, maybe it’s time to pay closer attention. Overusing antibiotics in livestock — including chicken, beef, and pork — contributes to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, or “superbugs,” which make everyday infections harder or even impossible to treat. According to the CDC, over 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur annually in the U.S., resulting in more than 35,000 deaths.

To see what your go-to chains are doing about it, the Serving Up Superbugs report, produced by Food Animal Concerns Trust and the Keep Antibiotics Working coalition, graded 20 of the nation’s biggest restaurant chains on their antibiotic use policies for chicken, beef, pork, and turkey. Researchers pulled from company websites, sustainability reports, and direct outreach to verify policies. 

Chains that only had a policy for one meat didn’t get a free pass. Here’s how the meat behind the menu scored.

Pizza Hut

Grade: D

• Total Score: 26/100
• Policy Score: 9
• Implementation Score: 6
• Transparency Score: 11

In 2018, Pizza Hut announced it would stop serving chicken raised with antibiotics important to human medicine by 2022. It made headlines, especially as the first national pizza chain to include wings in that commitment. But it seems nothing happened, which means they made what experts call a token effort — doing just enough to look good without making real changes.

Today, only a portion of their chicken meets that standard. There’s no policy at all for pork or beef.

Domino’s

Grade: D

1. Total Score: 25/100
2. Policy Score: 9
3. Implementation Score: 10
4. Transparency Score: 6

Domino’s, the world’s biggest pizza chain, serves plenty of beef and pork — but only has a limited antibiotics policy for some of its chicken. The company doesn’t allow fluoroquinolones or steroids in the broiler chicken it buys and sources from suppliers verified by the USDA for responsible antibiotic use. Over 96% of its chicken meets this standard. But that’s where the clarity ends. Domino’s says it plans to transition to beef and pork raised without routine antibiotics “when the supply catches up,”  which is another way of saying, not yet. Until then, it’s business as usual.

Dunkin’

Grade: D

1. Total Score: 25/100
2. Policy Score: 9
3. Implementation Score: 10
4. Transparency Score: 6

Dunkin’ is a donut shop, but it serves a lot of meat — bacon, sausage, and turkey on breakfast sandwiches. Despite that, the chain has one solid policy: all chicken must be sourced from birds raised with no antibiotics ever. But that’s where the good news ends.

Dunkin’ has no meaningful policy in place for pork, turkey, or beef. That means antibiotics can be used routinely in those parts of its supply chain, as long as it falls under the vague umbrella of “disease control.”

Burger King

Grade: D

1. Total Score: 25/100
2. Policy Score: 9
3. Implementation Score: 10
4. Transparency Score: 6

Burger King promised to phase out “critically important” antibiotics in chicken back in 2016 — but that’s a narrow category, which means they still allow medically important antibiotics.

The self-proclaimed king has no policy at all for beef or pork, and no proof that they track or audit anything. That’s why they got a D.

Panera Bread

Grade: D

• Total Score: 25/100
• Policy Score: 9
• Implementation Score: 6
• Transparency Score: 10

Panera Bread used to flaunt its clean-label halo like a badge of honor — no antibiotics, no artificial anything, no-nonsense. The sandwich-and-soup chain was a top-tier player in the antibiotic-free meat game, graded A- on the Chain Reaction scorecard. But in 2024, they went from hero to zero. The company started removing “No Antibiotics Ever” signs from its stores and quietly changed course: they now allow routine use of certain antibiotics in pork and turkey, and permits animal byproducts in the feed for chicken and cattle. Not so clean after all.

Panda Express

Grade: D-

1. Total Score: 14/100
2. Policy Score: 9
3. Implementation Score: 4
4. Transparency Score: 1

Panda Express has taken some steps toward reducing antibiotic use, albeit in a limited manner. A few chicken items are raised without antibiotics, part of what they call the “Panda Promise.” But there’s no full policy that covers all chicken on the menu, and no commitment at all for beef or shrimp.

Little Caesars

Grade: F

1. Total Score: 4/100
2. Policy Score: 0
3. Implementation Score: 0
4. Transparency Score: 4

Little Caesars has earned its “F” the old-fashioned way — by doing absolutely nothing. No public antibiotics policy. No transparency. No plan, just a whole lot of pepperoni.

Arby’s

Grade: F

1. Total Score: 0/100
2. Policy Score: 0
3. Implementation Score: 0
4. Transparency Score: 0

We know Arby’s has the meats — but not what’s in the meat. Despite serving a variety of proteins like roast beef, brisket, turkey, and chicken, Arby’s has no publicly available policy on antibiotic use in its supply chain. However Arby’s has previously stated that it complies with FDA guidelines, but without a clear, public commitment to reducing antibiotics in its meat supply, customers are left in the dark.

Sonic Drive-In

Grade: F

1. Total Score: 0/100
2. Policy Score: 0
3. Implementation Score: 0
4. Transparency Score: 0

Sonic says they’ve got a policy on antibiotics. And they do — for chicken. In 2017, they pledged to phase out medically important antibiotics in their chicken, but there’s been little public update since. There’s no public policy for pork or beef, so the chain’s commitment doesn’t go much further than the drive-thru speaker.

Dairy Queen

Grade: F

1. Total Score: 0/100
2. Policy Score: 0
3. Implementation Score: 0
4. Transparency Score: 0

Dairy Queen sure knows how to whip up a Blizzard, but when it comes to keeping antibiotics out of its meat, the chain flunks the test. The chain has no public policy limiting the use of medically important antibiotics in its beef or pork. For chicken, they say they don’t support routine use — whatever that means — but still allow therapeutic use under veterinary oversight.

Olive Garden

Grade: F

1. Total Score: 0/100
2. Policy Score: 0
3. Implementation Score: 0
4. Transparency Score: 0

Olive Garden serves a lot of meat, but stays vague on what’s in it. It serves beef, pork, and chicken without a clear public commitment to limit medically important antibiotics. In 2019, its parent company Darden said it would source chicken raised without those drugs by 2023, but the policy still allows routine antibiotic use for disease prevention, so there is that.