Sponsors
The bill enables farms and processors to monetize surplus broiler hatching eggs and reduce waste while clarifying regulations, but it raises food-safety concerns, could pressure shell-egg producers, and imposes a tight rulemaking timeline on regulators.
Broiler hatching-egg producers and egg-breaking processors: surplus hatching eggs can be sold and processed into liquid egg products, increasing revenue for producers and supplying egg breakers (which can lower ingredient costs for food manufacturers and potentially consumers).
Broiler hatcheries and producers: fewer surplus hatching eggs will be discarded because they can be processed, reducing food waste on farms.
Producers and processors across the egg supply chain: clearer statutory definitions for terms like 'egg,' 'egg product,' and 'egg breaker' improve regulatory clarity and help stakeholders comply with rules.
Consumers and healthcare providers: changing allowed holding temperatures or durations for hatching eggs intended for processing could increase food-safety risks and the chance of contaminated egg products reaching the market.
Shell-egg producers and small egg businesses: an expanded supply of liquid egg products could depress prices or increase competition in related egg markets, harming some producers' revenues.
Federal and state regulators: requiring FDA/USDA rulemaking within 180 days could create extra regulatory burden, risk rushed or incomplete rules, or cause implementation delays that complicate compliance.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Allows surplus broiler hatching eggs intended for egg breakers to be exempt from a specific FDA holding rule and requires FDA (with USDA consultation) to revise the rule within 180 days to permit hatching-compatible holding conditions for sale to processors.
Introduced December 10, 2025 by Thomas Bryant Cotton · Last progress December 10, 2025
Makes FDA’s specific hatching-egg holding rule inapplicable to surplus broiler hatching eggs when those eggs will be sold to egg breakers for processing into liquid egg products, and requires HHS (through the FDA Commissioner), in consultation with USDA, to issue a revised rule within 180 days that allows holding temperatures and durations compatible with hatching conditions so surplus broiler hatching eggs can be sold to egg breakers. Defines terms by reference to existing Egg Products Inspection Act definitions.