WHAT HAPPENED: The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved the fiscal year 2027 appropriations bill covering the Agriculture Department, the Food and Drug Administration and related agencies. The vote was 35 to 25. House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Andy Harris (R-MD) included language in the bill that would allow surplus broiler hatching eggs to be sold into the egg breaker market, at least for one year since this is a one-year spending bill.
OTHER AMENDMENTS: On a side note, an amendment offered by Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez (D-WA), included report language encouraging USDA to expedite an HPAI vaccine in a pilot program. It was defeated in a voice vote.
WHY IT MATTERS: In 2009, FDA finalized a rule to address Salmonella in table eggs. The rule imposed a refrigeration requirement, not just on table eggs, but on all eggs (including broiler industry eggs). As a result, broiler producers can no longer sell those surplus eggs that didn’t hatch to “breakers.” These egg breakers pasteurize them for use in baking products, pastas, etc. This provision would correct that, allowing surplus broiler eggs to be used in the food supply after pasteurization.
Source: NCC
ARE THESE EGGS SAFE? USDA’s publicly available testing data show that Salmonella positives in pasteurized egg products remain nearly zero—confirming that pasteurization at USDA-inspected breakers is an effective, independent food safety control.
NCC’s TAKE: We fully support this provision that would make available nearly 400 million safe, nutritious, and pasteurized eggs each year. NCC has twice petitioned FDA to make this change, and we support two separate bills currently introduced in the House and Senate that address this issue.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING: “The data that the FDA relied on is old data that actually used modeling data, not a real study. They changed the rule. And subsequent to changing the rule, there was no difference in the number of batches that failed pasteurization. So actually the real world data, actual sampling data shows that rule was not effective at changing anything. Pasteurization in fact works.” — Rep. Harris
Watch a video of Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) speaking out in support of the provision:
