Perdue Expands NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER Poultry into Mainstream Grocery, Foodservice

Perdue is moving NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER protein into mainstream grocery categories and foodservice menu items with the transition of its entire frozen, refrigerated and fresh value-added chicken products and all of its foodservice turkey items to NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER (NAE). Perdue made the announcement during the 2016 Annual Meat Conference in Nashville.

The transition, taking place now, will make PERDUE the first major brand to convert all of its value-added chicken products to NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER, according to company officials, providing consumers with choices in every category – fresh, refrigerated and frozen. The conversion to NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER at retail includes all PERDUE brand heat-and-eat and pre-seasoned chicken items, such as retail nuggets, strips and grilled strips. It ensures that consumers do not have to forego the confidence that comes with NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER for the convenience they want, nor will they have to wait years. Products will hit shelves this month, with the conversion continuing through May. Perdue is distributing those products coast-to-coast.

The conversion to NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER for all foodservice turkey items means that more than 150 NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER menu items are now available to independent operators through foodservice distributors across the country. The foodservice turkey items join a complete line of NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER menu-ready chicken distributed under the PERDUE HARVESTLAND and other foodservice brands.

Eric Christianson, senior vice president of marketing and innovation, explains the scale of Perdue's latest advancement in NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER consumer products: "In the retail sector, we're converting all branded refrigerated and frozen convenience products to NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER, bringing the total number of products with the claim to more than 200. In just a few months, we will take NAE mainstream, moving it beyond select fresh items and niche brands and making PERDUE NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER chicken products available everywhere consumers shop for chicken in the grocery store. The combination of converting our everyday, go-to PERDUE products to NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER, along with our NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER foodservice offerings, represents a significant transformation in the market. We're raising the bar on the choices consumers can expect right now."

The announcement follows the company's work towards minimizing antibiotic use: two-thirds of the company's chickens are now raised without any antibiotics of any kind, up from 50 percent six months ago. And although raising turkey without antibiotics is more difficult than chicken, Perdue has nonetheless converted more than half of its turkey raising to NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER, a major shift in turkey production practices, officials add.

"The NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER distinction is very important to us," says chairman Jim Perdue. "That claim is transparent and absolutely clear to consumers: no antibiotics of any kind, at any time. Consumers have a number of concerns around antibiotic use, and they deserve products that address all those concerns with a promise they can trust. That's why we back up the NO ANTIBIOTICS EVER claim on PERDUE consumer chicken products with a USDA Process Verified Program."