A Palo Alto-based food company has found a new tool in battling the phenomenon of increasingly antibiotic-resistant bacteria: the hamburger.
Last week, Bon Appetit Management Company announced that under a new policy, it will only buy beef that has never been exposed to antibiotics or growth hormones. The on-site catering firm also recently became the first major food service company to oppose the Food and Drug Administration's pending approval of allowing cattle to be fed cefquinome, an antibiotic used to treat human illnesses.
Bon Appetit, which operates more than 400 cafes in 28 states, will now serve 100,000 all-natural hamburgers each month. Locally the company operates restaurants at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, Oracle, Yahoo and the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park.
Executive Chef Andrew Roybal, who runs the dining hall at Palo Alto-based TIBCO Software, said natural beef cooks differently and produces a better-tasting, healthier burger.
"Natural hamburger patties don't shrink down as much as your standard ones," Roybal said.
Bon Appetit spokeswoman Maisie Greenawalt said that when cattle are fed antibiotics and hormones, the animals grow faster by adding water weight. "So when you cook the meat, it releases a lot of water and with that goes flavor, so you end up with a drier hamburger," she said.
Greenawalt said the company has found that a five-ounce conventional patty cooks to the same size as a four-ounce natural beef patty.
And Roybal noted that the natural beef tastes better than "something that's been fed a processed cornmeal product."
Moreover, limiting the use of antibiotics in cattle may make human illnesses easier to treat, said Rebecca Goldburg, senior scientist at the nonprofit Environmental Defense.
"The chief threat is that the use (in cattle) of antibiotics also used in human medicine increases the chance that when that antibiotic is used to treat human infections, it won't work," Goldburg said. She described cefquinome as "a very advanced form of penicillin."
In September, the Infectious Diseases Society of America said in a statement to the FDA that approving cefquinome use for cattle poses a threat to people because "resistance genes may be transferred to humans through the food supply and ultimately cause treatment failure..." The society also pointed out that the antibiotic is often the "sole therapy or one of few alternatives to treat serious human disease."
"Bon Appetit is the first major food company to say 'We don't want this either.' We want food to be safe," Goldburg said.
Greenawalt said the company already has similar all-natural policies in place for chicken and turkey breast. It took until 2007 for the company to find enough natural beef suppliers to meet their national demand, she said.
She said the company is now working on finding natural pork suppliers and increasing their percentage of beef from all-grass-fed cattle.
Roybal said his diners already enjoy the change.
"There is nothing like something coming from a real farm," he said.Palo Alto Daily News
