A coalition of 54 institutional investors has launched an “engagement campaign” with ten of the biggest US and UK restaurant chains, to call for an end to the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics important to human health in their global meat and poultry supply chains.
The investors, which include Aviva Investors, Natixis Asset Management, ACTIAM, Mirova, Coller Capital and Strathclyde Pension Fund, have written to the 10 companies, asking them to set appropriate timelines to prohibit the use of all medically important antibiotics in their global meat and poultry supply chains.
According to claims in a new report – The restaurant sector and antibiotic risk – released by the investor group FAIRR and the investment charity ShareAction, half of the 10 global restaurant chains they are targeting have no publicly available policies in place to manage or mitigate antibiotic overuse in their supply chains.
The investors say they are concerned that a failure to confront irresponsible antibiotic use poses significant risks to their investments.
“These include the substantial risk of regulation as antibiotic overuse has increasingly become a target for stricter regulation in both the EU and US,” they say, adding that further regulation is “highly likely”
The targeted food companies include J D Wetherspoon, McDonald’s and Domino’s Pizza Group.
