Federal agencies must move in their procurements toward a preference for meat and poultry produced according to FDA-approved antibiotic use policies, under a presidential memo.
As a first step, GSA is to initiate a process in which vendors under contract renewals and new awards offer as an option in GSA-run cafeterias such products “to the extent that such an option is available and cost effective.” They are to be identified at the point of sale.
For three years GSA is to annually report on customer demand, product supply and market prices for such products to a White House-created task force on antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Similarly, agencies that contract for food in their own cafeterias may voluntarily submit such information to the task force.
Each agency is to create a preference for awarding contracts to vendors that offer that option, within the same parameters, by 2018 for poultry and by 2020 for meats. Also by 2020, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council is to issue rules “to implement a preference, with appropriate exceptions” for products complying with antibiotic use policies for all acquisitions of meat and poultry.
