Tyson cannot say "no antbiotics" anymore

Tyson Dealt Blow on No-Antibiotic Label

• By LAUREN ETTER
  
• The Wall Street Journal, November 20, 2007
  

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has told Tyson Foods Inc. that it can no longer label its products as "raised without antibiotics," a blow to one of the nation's largest chicken producers.

The company, which has spent tens of millions of dollars since June on an advertising and labeling campaign to distinguish its product from competitors, is scrambling to salvage the label.

The decision, conveyed in a previously nonpublic letter dated Nov. 6, comes after the Springdale, Ark., company received approval by the USDA in May to label its products as "raised without antibiotics," a coveted term in the industry that companies are seeking as a way to appeal to consumers concerned about the use of antibiotics in animals.

The labeling was a coup for Tyson, and the following month the company announced with fanfare that it would become the "first major poultry company to offer fresh chicken raised without antibiotics on a large-scale basis." At the time the label was approved, consumer-protection groups lauded Tyson's decision and urged other major poultry producers to follow suit.

Now the USDA says it made a mistake in approving the label. Daniel Engeljohn, an official at the USDA's office that oversees labeling decisions, said the department is trying to "make sure labels are truthful and not misleading" and "our consistent position is, if you're going to make a raised-without-antibiotics claim, that there will be no antibiotics that were included in the feed during the life of the animal."