MORE than three-quarters of Australians mistakenly believe chicken contains added hormones or steroids.
These are the findings of research commissioned by chicken giant Steggles.
Steggles group managing director John Camilleri said there were "absolutely no hormones or steroids added to any of our chickens".
He said it had been illegal to use hormones or steroids for almost 50 years.
However RSPCA spokeswoman Lisa Chalk said most of the chicken meat industry routinely used antibiotics for "preventative purposes".
"A minority just use it to treat individual animals (when they become sick)," Ms Chalk said.
"There are strict guidelines about how many days before slaughter any drug must be withdrawn, and residues in meat are regularly monitored. Regardless, the RSPCA still doesn't endorse routine use of antibiotics."
Ms Chalk said there was no capacity in intensive, industrial-scale farming to identify health problems and treat animals as individuals.
She said this led to blanket use of antibiotics.
