
A Major Change for a Major Chain
In-N-Out updates its famous burgers with a fresh ingredient.
When first arriving at In-N-Out, the most noticeable things are the smell of burgers and fries, giant palm trees that decorate the outside, and the long lines that seem to go on for miles. Often times the lines cut through parking lots or into streets, but it’s a completely normal thing when it comes to the delicious chain. Love them or hate them, In-N-Out stands out in a sea of burger joints with their fresh ingredients and classic milkshakes.
In-N-Out, primarily known for their burgers and joy they bring to Californians, opened its first location in 1948 in Baldwin Park, Calif. Since then, In-N-Out has expanded to 300 restaurants in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Utah, and now Oregon.
On Feb. 24,2015, in an email sent to Reuters, Keith Brazeau, vice president of quality for In-N-Out in CA, urged their suppliers to advance the process of ensuring cattle are raised without antibiotics. “Our company is committed to beef that is not raised with antibiotics important to human medicine and we’ve asked our suppliers to accelerate their progress towards establishing antibiotic alternatives," said Brazeau.
In-N-Out is already known for using fresh ingredients in all of their served products, but a push from a new campaign created by the CALPIRG Education Fund, Friends of the Earth, and the Center for Food Safety and other activist groups led to the company pushing their suppliers to follow a lead similar to the suppliers of Chipotle, Panera, and Shake Shack.
The new campaign pushes big food chains, such as In-N-Out, to stop the use of antibiotics on factory farms in order to prevent “superbugs”. Superbugs occur when a bacterial infection becomes resistant to drugs currently used to treat common infections. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that at least 2 million people will become infected, and at least 23,000 may die.
McDonald’s Corp. has set 2017 as their deadline for its switch to chicken raised without antibiotics, and Subway has not set a deadline for the swap in their meats.
So here’s to you, In-N-Out, thank you for sobering us up at 2 a.m. and never failing us! Trigger Warning: the photo below will make you hungry and will make you get in your car and drive to the nearest In-N-Out.

