The famous fast food restaurant company Subway announced Tuesday that it has decided to switch to poultry products raised without antibiotics. The decision has been taken by the company after advocacy groups targeted the company and called for change.

Subway said its more than 27,000 restaurants in the United States will switch to poultry products next year. The US outlets will only serve meat raised without antibiotics. In a statement, the company said that from March 2016, its US customers will be served meals with poultry products raised without antibiotics.

“Turkey raised without antibiotics will be introduced in 2016, with a completed transition expected within 2-3 years, and pork and beef raised without antibiotics will follow within six years after that”, Subway added.

Subway, owned and operated by Doctor's Associates Inc, had announced in August that the restaurant chain would stop using chicken raised with antibiotics. Earlier, a number of groups had targeted the company for not sharing specific details of its products. Subway’s announcement on Tuesday has pleased the groups, who were planning to deliver petitions about the issue to the company’s headquarters on Thursday.

Steve Blackledge, one of the coalition members, said the overuse of antibiotics on poultry is a serious public health problem and people knew about that. Customers are hungry for meat, but they want meat raised without antibiotics, Blackledge added.

He said the coalition members had planned to deliver nearly 300,000 petitions to Subway headquarters, but the new move by the company has changed their plan.