National Chicken Council Offers Measure to Help Alleviate Egg Shortage in Wake of Bird Flu

February 25, 2025

In light of the pressure the current highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI or “bird flu”) outbreak is putting on the nation’s egg supply, and resulting record egg prices, the National Chicken Council (NCC) today petitioned the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to reverse or modify an Obama-era regulation that forces the broiler industry (chickens raised for meat) to discard perfectly nutritious and safe eggs.

“With government risk assessments affirming their safety, and the fact that surplus broiler hatching eggs would be pasteurized (cooked), we respectfully request FDA to immediately exercise its enforcement discretion to allow these eggs to be sent for breaking, helping to ease costs and inflationary pressures for consumers,” said Ashley Peterson, Ph.D., NCC senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs.

NCC also petitioned the FDA early on during the current HPAI outbreak but was rejected by the Biden administration in 2023.

Granting NCC’s request would release almost 400 million eggs into the egg breaking supply each year, thus preventing the much-coveted table eggs from having to be used as ingredients in items such as salad dressings, bread, cake mix, pasta, pancake mix, mayonnaise, ice cream, pie crusts, sauces, and many other everyday food products.

“Is this a silver bullet that will bring down the cost of eggs tomorrow? No,” Peterson said, “but it is one option that could be part of a broader plan to help relieve some pressure on the egg supply as the situation worsens. And it’s just common sense we shouldn’t be throwing away eggs at a time like this, especially when the government says they’re safe.

“We are eager to get to work with the Trump administration to advance policies that provide relief to American consumers who are struggling with inflation and high food prices, including record egg prices exacerbated by the HPAI outbreak. An exemption to the FDA’s ‘Shell Egg Rule,’ will do just that,” Peterson added.

The full petition can be read by clicking here.

Background

“Broilers” are chickens raised for meat. “Layers” are hens that lay the eggs that go to grocery stores, restaurants, and to breakers to be pasteurized for egg products. These eggs are known as “table eggs” or “shell eggs.” Broilers and layers are different, separate industries.

Due to fluctuating market conditions, broiler hatcheries, in some instances, have more eggs on hand than what they want to hatch. These are known as “surplus” hatching eggs. Before 2009, when the FDA, under President Obama, implemented a new rule, broiler producers could sell these surplus eggs to egg processors, known as “breakers,” to be pasteurized (cooked) and used in egg products.

When eggs are delivered from a breeding farm to a broiler hatchery, they are stored in a room kept at 65°F before they are placed in incubators to be hatched. Research has shown this is the ideal temperature to store these eggs prior to incubation – warmer temperatures would induce the incubation process too soon, and colder temperatures comprise the viability of an eventual hatch. But the 2009 FDA rule, which was focused on the safety of “table eggs,” or the eggs you buy in your grocery store, stated that all eggs sent anywhere in the U.S. food supply must be kept at 45°F within 36 hours after being laid.

The refrigeration requirement is unnecessary for broiler hatching eggs since breakers already pasteurize egg products and are held to the same standard as table eggs.

As a direct result of the 2009 FDA rule, broiler producers stopped selling surplus hatching eggs to egg breakers and instead are forced to render or throw these eggs away, often at an additional cost. NCC estimates that more than 5.4 billion eggs have been wasted and sent to landfills rather than tables since the rule was implemented. At a cost to the broiler industry of $27 million annually, for a total of $350 million.

FDA never suggested these surplus broiler eggs were unsafe or that pasteurization was ineffective. The FDA rule was focused on table eggs, which are raw products and present a very different risk profile than pasteurized surplus broiler eggs. In fact, under FDA’s rule, table eggs that fail to meet certain requirements can be sent to egg breakers to be pasteurized, which is exactly what NCC is asking for now for surplus broiler eggs. NCC objected to FDA’s rule when it was implemented on this and related grounds.

“Egg products” are defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as “eggs that are removed from their shells for processing.” Producing egg products includes breaking eggs, filtering, mixing, stabilizing, blending, pasteurizing, cooling, freezing or drying, and packaging. This is done at USDA-inspected facilities under the oversight of federal inspectors. Liquid, frozen, and dried egg products are widely used by food manufacturers and the foodservice industry and as ingredients in items such as salad dressings, bread, cake mix, pasta, pancake mix, mayonnaise, ice cream, pie crusts, sauces, and many other everyday food products.

Because egg products are pasteurized, they are ensured a high level of food safety. A 2020 joint FDA/USDA risk assessment confirmed these products present extremely low public risk due to the “extremely high pasteurization efficiency” of the egg breaking pasteurization process.

Timeline

• September 2004: FDA published: “Egg Safety; Proposed Rule for Prevention of Salmonella Enteritidis in Shell Eggs During Production,” commonly known as the “Shell Egg Rule.” The proposed rule did not apply to broiler hatching eggs, so NCC did not provide public comment.
• July 2009: FDA, under the Obama administration, published the final rule, and without warning, changed it to apply to broiler hatching eggs in such a way as to prevent them from being sold to egg processors known as “breakers.”
• February 2010: NCC petitioned FDA to amend the final rule or reopen the comment period with respect to the new application of the rule to broiler hatching eggs. The request was denied.
• October 2015: In the wake of the first HPAI outbreak, NCC, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and the Association for Dressings and Sauces petitioned FDA to reverse or modify this policy to allow surplus broiler hatching eggs to be sold to breakers. FDA, still under the Obama administration, never responded to this petition.
• February 2023: In the wake of the second HPAI outbreak, NCC re-petitioned FDA to modify this policy to allow surplus broiler hatching eggs to be sold to breakers.
• June 2023: FDA, under the Biden administration, officially declined NCC’s petition.
• February 2025: As the HPAI situation worsens and egg prices hit an all-time high, NCC again petitions FDA to allow surplus broiler hatching eggs to be sold to breakers.

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Source: National Chicken Council