Kentucky Fried Chicken is returning to its roots with a pledge that by the end of 2018, all chicken purchased by KRC in the United States will be raised without antibiotics important to human medicine.

In a letter to KFC guests, KFC president Kevin Hochman said the action is part of its Re-Colonelization effort, the mission of returning to "Colonel Sanders' standards of serving up finger lickin' good chicken in every meal."

The chain has been working closely with more than 2,000 farms across the country to make the change.

"As the Colonel always said, we do things the hard way, because that’s the only way to make delicious, hand-prepared chicken for you and your family," the letter reads. "We will keep cooking up our world-famous chicken the hard way too, which means

1) multiple deliveries of fresh U.S. farm-raised chicken to our restaurants each week, and 2) trained cooks hand-breading and freshly preparing that chicken for you—a recipe that takes more than 25 minutes to cook from start to finish."

The restaurant chain is also eliminating artificial colors and flavors from its core products.

Source: Kentucky Fried Chicken