Progresso Removes Chickens Given Antibiotics From Its Soups

Did you know that there’s a “soup season?” According to canned soup company Progresso, soup season is a thing, and it starts approximately when all of the pumpkin spice foodstuffs hit store shelves. To kick off this year’s soup season, which we’ll pretend is an actual thing, Progresso announced from its agrarian paradise in New Jersey that it has switched to chicken raised without antibiotics.

This change may not be as daring and health-conscious as it seems: plenty of fast-food brands are phasing out meat and dairy raised with antibiotics, fitting in with a trend to advertise slightly more healthy ingredients for what are generally not very healthy foods. Chain eateries like McDonald’s, Papa John’s, and Wendy’s have recently announced their own removal of meat that has had antibiotics administered.

Progresso parent company General Mills is currently working on removing artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives from its foods, and has to keep up with competing canned soup brand Campbell’s, which announced plans to do the same back in July.

Why are antibiotics in meat so important, anyway? The meat and milk that we eat can’t have actual antibiotics in them, but the administration of low doses of antibiotics to farm animals for growth promotion and disease prevention has contributed to the crisis in bacteria resistant to antibiotics that can infect animals and humans.