Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands continues to disclose that its principal purchased items include chicken, cheese, beef, and pork and that it depends on large quantities of these proteins as well as seafood. In its Global Antimicrobial Stewardship policy, the company estimates that its combined poultry, beef and pork volumes cover over 90% of the animal protein sourced in its system globally. It is unclear what species are represented by ‘poultry’, but it is assumed to be majority broilers. The company has an animal welfare policy in place for cage-free eggs suggesting it is also exposed to this protein, however, the extent of this is unclear. For its Pizza Hut brand, the company has previously stated that pork is an important protein and that every year it purchases a substantial amount of mozzarella. It has also previously noted that as consumers move away from red meat, the volume of chicken in its protein portfolio is increasing. The company could consider providing a granular breakdown by volume of each of its purchased animal proteins to provide investors with greater clarity about its exposure.

In its ‘Global Antimicrobial Stewardship Policy’, Yum! Brands states that it supports the principles of judicious use outlined by World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), the World Veterinary Association (WVA), the American Veterinary Medical Foundation (AVMF), and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and that judicious use doctrine does not permit the routine use of antimicrobials important to human medicine for growth promotion or disease prevention. The company does support the use of antimicrobials to prevent illness in the presence of a known pathogen but states that antimicrobials that are not important to human medicine and specific to animals should be considered for application first. In its 2024 Yum! Antimicrobial Resistance Report, the company highlights that it has met its public commitments to remove antibiotics important to human medicine in its poultry supply for KFC US, Taco Bell US and for its Pizza Hut US chicken toppings and wings. The company also states that they have made new commitments to drive further progress, however, it is unclear what the company is referring to here. Notably, in its 2024 Global Citizen and Sustainability Report, released in 2025, Yum! brands now states that all of the poultry sourced by its US brands is certified under the United States Department of Agriculture's Process Verified Program as meeting the No Antibiotics Used Important to Human Medicine as defined by the WHO. This new wording suggests that its Habit Burger & Grill brand now also sources poultry raised without antibiotics important to human medicine. The company does not, however, specifically mention this achievement for Habit Burger & Grill in any other disclosures. Regarding beef, Yum! Brands previously published a ‘Beef Good Antimicrobial Stewardship Program’ in which it set a target to reduce the use of antibiotics important to human medicine in its US and Canadian supply for Taco Bell by 25% by 2025. The company has not provided a specific update on this in its recent disclosure. In its Global Antimicrobial Stewardship Policy, the company states that it will give preference to suppliers who require measured reductions in antibiotics important to human health and who prohibit antibiotic use that creates resistance to antibiotics important for human heath, however, this is not a requirement and therefore not considered a policy. For pork, Yum! Brands states that it supports the ‘U.S. Pork Board’s guidance to promote antibiotics responsibility for U.S. pork producers’. This guidance does not appear to restrict antibiotic use beyond FDA guidelines. Yum! Brands does not disclose a policy for its other purchased proteins, including dairy, laying hens, and seafood.

Yum! Brands states that all of the poultry sourced by its U.S. brands is certified under the United States Department of Agriculture's Process Verified Program as meeting the No Antibiotics Used Important to Human Medicine. If this statement includes both its company-owned and franchised restaurants, this would cover approximately 30% of the company's global restaurant footprint. If this only refers to company-owned restaurants, this figure would be approximately 0.2%. Yum! Brands’ commitment to a 25% reduction in the use of antibiotics important to human medicine in its beef supply by 2025 applies to Taco Bell in the US and Canada. This has not changed since last year's disclosure. It is unclear whether its reduction target only covers its supply for company-owned restaurants in the US and Canada or also includes its franchises. The company stated in its 2024 Annual Report that about 87% of Taco Bell’s restaurants are located within the United States, 7% of which are company-owned. The company has not disclosed a policy or reduction target for any of its other brands but has previously stated that its beef use is largely in Taco Bell, with Habit Burger & Grill being a contributor, and that KFC does not use a material amount of beef. It is unclear exactly how much beef is used by Habitat Burger & Grill, however, the company reports that it has 383 restaurants, while its Taco Bell division consists of approximately 7,600 restaurants in the US. Although Yum! Brands had reported its efforts to reduce the use of antimicrobials in its international markets, it has not banned or restricted the use of MIAs aligned with WHO’s’ guidance and therefore is not considered to have any policies for these divisions. Some of the efforts detailed in its more recent reporting are outlined below. Yum! brands states that in 2024, it joined TRANSFORM (A USAID Global Health Security Program Initiative) which endorses the International Poultry Council antimicrobial standards. These standards highlight that antimicrobials critically important for human medicine should only be used for therapeutic purposes (treatment, control or prevention of a disease) and under a supervising veterinarian’s diagnosis and oversight. This does not fully align with the WHO Guidelines which state that MIA should not be used for disease prevention in the absence of a diagnosed disease, that critically important antimicrobials should not be used to control the dissemination of disease and that HPCIA should not be used in food-producing animals. It is not clear what percentage of Yum! Brands global poultry supply is in compliance with the International Poultry Council antimicrobial standards. In its ‘2024 Yum! Antimicrobial Resistance Report’, Yum! Brands highlights that it is engaging with the US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef and the International Consortium for Antimicrobial Stewardship in Agriculture (ICASA). It states that ICASA is pioneering technologies and management practices that promote judicious antibiotics use, however, it is unclear how this is defined or the locations covered. In its ‘Good Antimicrobial Stewardship’ document, Yum! Brands previously reported that it had driven improvements in the judicious use of antimicrobials in Asia and Africa and was working with international suppliers to eliminate the use of antimicrobials for growth promotion, even where permitted by law. It also stated that it had deployed a third-party supplier audit on animal welfare and a consultancy program globally, and that in two European markets, it had achieved a 50% reduction in the use of antimicrobials. The company stated that it was piloting a regular assessment of the impact of its suppliers’ husbandry practices on antimicrobial usage in poultry, however, it has not published its findings from this.

Yum! Brands confirms that it has removed antibiotics important to human medicine from its poultry supply for all its U.S Brands. It is not clear if Yum! Brands is tracking antibiotic use in its global supply chains, however, KFC Western Europe, UK and Ireland discloses its antibiotic use in mg/kg in its annual chicken welfare report. There is no evidence that Yum! Brands is currently tracking or monitoring the use of antibiotics important in its beef supply chain. Its 2022 Global Citizenship & Sustainability Report stated that Taco Bell was funding, through ICASA, research to develop a system to better evaluate and report antimicrobial usage. There was no mention of this or update on the progress of this in the 2024 Global Citizenship & Sustainability Report. In its 2024 Yum! Antimicrobial Resistance Report, the company highlights that there is a lack of reliable data from the beef sector due to the fragmented nature of beef production and because beef is derived from both exclusive beef production and dairy production. Yum! Brands states that it surveys and monitors antimicrobial use by auditing suppliers to confirm compliance with Yum!’s safety and quality standards for food animals, however, it is unclear what the antimicrobial use requirements of these standards are.

In its 2024 Global Citizenship & Sustainability Report, the company specifically states that all of the poultry sourced by its U.S. brands is certified under the United States Department of Agriculture's Process Verified Program as meeting the No Antibiotics Used Important to Human Medicine as defined by the WHO. There is no evidence that antibiotic use in the company's beef or other animal protein supply chains is being audited by a third party.

Yum! Brands does not disclose how it manages non-compliance with its antibiotic policies.

In 2019, Yum! Brands set a time-bound target for its Taco Bell restaurants to reduce the use of antibiotics important to human medicine in its US and Canadian beef sourcing by 25% by 2025. Yum! Brands has not set any other forward-looking time-bound targets to reduce its antibiotic use in its protein supply chains.

Yum! Brands' target to reduce the use of antibiotics important to human medicine by 25% by 2025 applies to its US and Canadian beef sourcing for its Taco Bell restaurants.

In its 2021 Global Citizenship & Sustainability Report, Yum! Brands disclosed some progress towards this target and reported that since 2019, when Taco Bell published its beef policy, approximately 15% of its raw beef supply has been procured from reduced antibiotic sources. The company has not provided a progress update specifically on its target, and it is unclear whether it is on track to reach its commitment by the end of 2025. In relation to this goal, the company has stated that, due to the complicated nature of the beef industry, isolating the volume of antibiotics used in any singular supply chain is complex but that it remains encouraged by the industry’s progress in general.