New Egg Bill Fast-Tracks Surplus Hatching Eggs to Liquid Market: What Does This Mean for Food Safety?

The “Lowering Egg Prices Act of 2025” has a straightforward goal, right in the title, but the mechanism for achieving it is a little more complex. This bill is all about creating a new pathway for eggs that were originally meant to hatch chicks but are now considered surplus. Instead of being wasted, these “surplus broiler hatching eggs” can now be sold to commercial facilities called “egg breakers” to be processed into liquid egg products—the kind used in bulk for making everything from restaurant omelets to packaged baked goods.

The Regulatory Shortcut

To make this happen immediately, the bill provides a regulatory shortcut. As soon as this law is enacted, these surplus hatching eggs are exempt from a specific, existing federal shell egg rule (21 CFR section 118.4(e)) that governs how eggs must be handled. Think of this as hitting the 'pause' button on one safety requirement for this specific category of eggs. This is a big change because it immediately clears the way for these eggs to be used commercially, reducing waste and potentially increasing the supply of liquid eggs, which is where the cost-saving promise comes from.

The New Rule Waiting Game

Here’s where it gets interesting and a little uncertain. While the bill immediately exempts these eggs from the old rule, it doesn't leave them unregulated forever. The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been given 180 days—about six months—to create a brand new rule. This new rule must establish specific temperature and time limits for holding these surplus eggs before they hit the egg breaker. The challenge for HHS is setting standards that are practical for the poultry industry, which needs to hold these eggs for hatching purposes first, while still guaranteeing they are safe for human consumption once they are processed into liquid form.

What This Means for Your Breakfast

For the average person buying eggs or products made with liquid eggs, this bill is a trade-off. On one hand, the intent is positive: reduce waste in the agricultural supply chain and increase the availability of liquid egg products, which should, in theory, help keep prices down at the grocery store and in restaurants. That’s the “Lowering Egg Prices” part of the title. On the other hand, we are essentially waiting six months for a new set of safety standards to be written for a product that is already being diverted into the food supply. If the new rule, which is yet to be drafted, sets standards that are too lax—if the time or temperature limits aren't strict enough—then we have a situation where a specific subset of eggs is entering the food supply under a potentially less rigorous safety regime than before. The real impact on food safety hinges entirely on the quality of the rule HHS writes over the next half-year.