August egg company recalls eggs over health risk
August Egg Company has announced a voluntary recall of approximately 20.4 million brown cage-free and brown certified organic eggs, equivalent to 1.7 million dozen. The affected eggs were processed at the company’s California facility and distributed to various grocery retailers across multiple states.
The recall was initiated out of an abundance of caution due to the potential contamination with Salmonella, a pathogenic bacterium that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, the elderly, and individuals with weakened immune systems.
This action is part of an ongoing public health investigation being conducted by federal and state authorities into a multi-state outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis infections.
Based on epidemiological information collected by CDC, a total of 79 people infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella have been reported from seven states. Illnesses started on dates ranging from February 24, 2025, to May 17, 2025. Twenty-seven of 30 cases with information available reported exposure to eggs or an egg containing dish before becoming ill. There have been 21 hospitalizations, and no deaths have been reported.
As part of this investigation, FDA conducted traceback based on where ill people reported shopping or eating eggs/egg-containing dishes during the timeframe of interest, and August Egg Company was identified as a common supplier. FDA also conducted an inspection and collected environmental samples at August Egg Company’s processing facility. Two samples from this inspection were positive for Salmonella and found to be a Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) match to the strain of Salmonella causing illnesses in this outbreak. August Egg Company began diverting all eggs to an egg breaker in May 2025. This breaking facility processes eggs to eliminate the Salmonella risk.
The three largest egg recalls in U.S. history:
1. 2010 – Wright County Egg & Hillandale Farms: ~550 million eggs
2. 2018 – Rose Acre Farms: over 200 million eggs
3. June 2025 – August Egg Company: ~20 million eggs
