New report has a beef with most burger chains

Just two burger chains make the grade in a new report about their beef.

Shake Shack and BurgerFi get grades of “A” for having policies to use beef raised without routine use of antibiotics. The report was co-authored by by several public interest groups, including U.S. PRIG, Consumer Reports and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“Fast-food restaurants, as some of America’s largest meat buyers, can play an instrumental role in pushing meat producers to use antibiotics responsibly,” the authors state in the report.

Wendy’s earned a “D-” because it buys about 15 percent of its beef from producers that have cut back on the use of an antibiotic.

McDonald’s, Burger King and even the much vaunted In-N-Out Burger were among the 22 chains to get failing grades of “F.”

A McDonald’s spokesperson told MarketWatch that the company is finalizing a policy that will ban the use of beef treated with medically important antibiotics. “Preserving the effectiveness of antibiotics for future generations is highly important to McDonald’s,” the spokesperson said.

The report, Chain Reaction IV: Burger Edition, was based on a survey of the Top 25 burger chains about policies and procedures for buying beef. Previous reports have looked at chains’ poultry buying.