Event shows grocery stores are failing to stop antibiotic overuse in their meat supply chains

The nation’s top grocery chains are failing to protect our public health.

That’s one takeaway from CALPIRG Education Fund’s event yesterday in Los Angeles, where advocates, volunteers, and public health professionals gathered to release a new report, Superbugs in Stock. Among the findings: 8 of the 12 largest U.S. supermarket companies, including Walmart and Trader Joe’s, received an “F” on their corporate policies regarding antibiotic use in their private label meat and poultry supplies.

The findings demonstrate that to date, the grocery sector has taken inadequate action to help mitigate the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a global public health threat that has been called a “slow-moving pandemic.”

Speakers at the event included CALPIRG’s Public Health Advocate Sander Kushen and Dr. Brad Spellberg, Chief Medical Officer at the LAC+USC Medical Center.

You can view the full report here.