Restaurant Brands International

Restaurant Brands International, Inc. (RBI) continues to provide a high-level disclosure of its key purchased proteins. For its animal health and welfare efforts which form part of its responsible sourcing disclosure, the company identifies its key animal proteins as broilers, laying hens, beef, and pork. In its 2024 Annual Report (AR), the company highlights shrimp as a menu item for Popeyes. RBI does not provide a granular breakdown by volume or revenue of its key purchased animal proteins making it difficult for investors to understand the company's level of exposure to each, however, it acknowledges that it is one of the world's largest purchasers of beef and that Popeyes is the world’s second largest quick service chicken concept by number of restaurants.

RBI acknowledges on its website that it has an important role to play in preserving the effectiveness of antibiotics. It continues to state that it is committed to good antibiotic stewardship and reducing antibiotics important to human medicine in its chicken and beef supply. The company states that it has removed the use of antibiotics important to human medicine, as defined by the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) list of Critically Important Antimicrobials for Human Medicine 6th Revision (2018), from its chicken supply for Burger King US, Popeyes US, and Tim Hortons US. Tim Hortons US was not previously included in this. It has also updated its disclosure to clarify that this excludes eggs and chicken by-products; however, it is not clear what is meant by chicken by-products. For its Tim Hortons restaurants in Canada, RBI continues to state that it has prohibited the preventative use of antibiotics of high importance and very high importance to human medicine as defined by Health Canada’s Categorization of Antimicrobial Drugs Based on Importance in Human Medicine (2009), for chicken used in its approved products. These two categories of antibacterials largely cover the antibacterials in the WHO List of highest priority critically important antimicrobials (HPCIA) and CIA, outside of one antibiotic (Fosfomycin) which is an HPCIA according to the WHO but classified as being of medium importance by Health Canada. This policy is therefore almost fully aligned with WHO recommendations 4a and 4b. The company continues to state that as part of its antibiotic stewardship program, it will work with its suppliers and franchisees in its global beef supply chain to encourage the reduction in the use of HPCIAs, a reduction in the routine preventative use of antibiotics, and a reduction in the use of antibiotics to promote growth. In this reporting cycle, the company has not provided a progress update related to this or publicly disclosed a policy or target to achieve these aims. This statement is therefore not considered an antibiotic policy. Similarly, the company previously disclosed that it aims to develop an antibiotic policy for pork but has not provided any updates on this during this reporting cycle. The company does not disclose an antibiotic policy for its egg-layers, dairy, and seafood.

RBI’s antibiotic policy for its broilers, which prohibits the use of medically important antibiotics, applies to its Burger King US, Popeyes US, and Tim Hortons US restaurants. This policy therefore covers approximately 33% of its global restaurant footprint. Its policy for approved chicken products in its Canadian Tim Hortons restaurants, which prohibits the preventative use of antibiotics of high importance and very high importance to human medicine, as defined by Health Canada, covers approximately 12% of its restaurant footprint. The company is not considered to have an antibiotic policy in place for its beef, pork, egg-layers, dairy, or seafood.

RBI continues to state on its company website that its poultry supply chain is the most vertically integrated, making it more feasible to maintain traceability from barn to final product. Although the company reports that it has removed antibiotics important to human medicine from its chicken supply chain for Burger King US, Popeyes US, and Tim Hortons US, the company does not publicly disclose its antibiotic usage data, and the scope of its internal tracking is unclear. In its 2024 Restaurant Brands for Good, the company updated its disclosure, stating that it is partnering with broiler chicken suppliers to improve the tracking of antibiotic usage and explore ways to reduce the need for medically important antimicrobials (MIA) through improved animal welfare. It does not disclose details of what is currently being tracked or how this will be improved. The company continues to disclose that its beef supply chain is not vertically integrated, and that there is limited available data on antibiotic use. As such, it states that measuring its current use of antibiotics is significantly challenging. The company continues to report that it is seeking solutions; however, it has not provided any update related to this or any evidence of engaging its supply chain on this issue in the last reporting cycle. The company states that it is facing similar traceability challenges in its pork supply, but has not provided any updates as to how it is engaging suppliers to address this. The company does not disclose any evidence that it is tracking its antibiotic use data for its egg-layers, dairy, and seafood.

RBI continues to report on its website that it has worked closely with its suppliers to study the use of antibiotics in its supply chain, but it does not publicly disclose evidence of having conducted audits on antibiotic use.

As in previous reporting cycles, RBI does not publicly report how it manages non-compliance of its antibiotic policies within its supply chain.

The company does not currently disclose evidence of forward-looking time-bound antibiotic's reduction targets in alignment with the WHO guidelines.

This is not applicable as the company does not disclose evidence of forward-looking time-bound antibiotic's reduction targets in alignment with the WHO guidelines.

This is not applicable as the company does not disclose evidence of forward-looking time-bound antibiotic's reduction targets in alignment with the WHO guidelines.