Egg-citing Help Is on the Way

Some egg-citing news as we enter spring: A bipartisan bill is on the table to lower egg prices for consumers. 

Tell us more: The legislation, as proposed by the House, would cut the red tape that forces farmers to dispose of millions of eggs each year. 

Smashing eggs is the law: Eggs are required to be refrigerated within 36 hours of being laid. However, it doesn’t specify between table eggs (raw and must be refrigerated) and breaker eggs (pasteurized and used in grocery products like dressing, cake mix, pasta, etc).

Soundbite: “Those are the eggs that at some point got broken and regardless of what you do with them, the eggs are pasteurized. Those don’t need to be refrigerated quite as quickly, because they’re cooked. But the Obama-era regulation says we do have to refrigerate them immediately and if you don’t, they have to be thrown away.” — Dusty Johnson, U.S. Representative from South Dakota

The damage: Almost 400M eggs are ruined annually. 

Make it make cents: The rule has even more of an impact now, as the average price of eggs is around $4.90 per dozen (varying geographically). The Lowering Egg Prices Act would bring hundreds of millions of breaker eggs back to the market. 

Some shell-y good news: If the act passes, federal regulations would be amended to exempt “surplus broiler hatching eggs that are intended to be sold to an egg breaker for purposes of processing such eggs as liquid egg products subject to regulation under the Egg Products Inspection Act.”

Cluck around and find out: “The FDA’s rule is a textbook example of government overreach making life more expensive for hardworking Americans. … This bill stops the waste, lowers prices, and restores common sense.” — Pat Harrigan, U.S. Representative (R-NC)

That’s all, yolks.