U.S. egg farmers produce the safest and highest quality eggs in the world. Individual farmers and the industry, working cooperative have established programs that assure food safety and high quality. Egg farmers have a long history of working with the various Federal and State agencies to protect the safety of all eggs produced for domestic and foreign consumption. Under authority of Federal law, USDA inspects egg-packing plants to determine that only eggs meeting Federal standards are sold to consumers. USDA and FDA regulations require that shell eggs be refrigerated after packaging and throughout the distribution chain. In addition to USDA and FDA regulations, all states administer their own state egg laws, which also provide for routine inspections of egg farms.

In the U.S., relatively few antibiotics are permitted in egg laying chickens. Where permitted, they are used on a limited basis, generally for therapeutic reasons. Any antibiotic use in egg laying chickens is subject to specific withdrawal periods prior to the marketing of eggs from involved flocks.

As part of its effort to further assure a safe food supply, the FDA has proposed an encompassing egg safety program to assure that Salmonella is not present in shell eggs. United Egg Producers has conceptually supported the proposed FDA “egg safety” program and worked with Congress, consumer advocacy groups and FDA to secure the most effective program possible. The industry, while awaiting for publication of the rule in its final form (and hoping that FDA accepts the suggestions UEP made for improving the original proposal), has already implemented most of the training, testing, and biosecurity measures outlined in the proposed rule. In fact, the FDA based its egg safety rule in large part on plans put in place several years ago in several major egg producing states. These intensive plans have made significant progress toward eliminating Salmonella as a concern in eggs.

All liquid, frozen and dried egg products manufactured in the U.S. are subject to continuous inspection by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). Since implementation of mandatory egg products inspection in 1971, the CDC has never linked an outbreak of food-borne illness to egg products. FSIS officials have recently noted that they do not consider egg products a high food safety risk.