FDA Raises Egg Recall to Highest Risk Level

The brands and where they sold

The FDA says the recall covers white shell eggs and brown cage-free shell eggs of various sizes, sold in bulk and in retail packs of 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36 and 60 eggs. Brand names on the FDA list: Kroger, Simple Truth, Brookshire's, Country Morning and Sunups (listed on the FDA outbreak advisory as Cal-Maine Sunups). The list also includes unbranded bulk Grade A and Grade AA cases.

The eggs were shipped to foodservice and retail customers in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. The FDA's outbreak advisory says they were available to consumers at Kroger stores in Texas and Louisiana; Brookshire Grocery stores in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana; and other smaller retail and foodservice outlets in those states plus Mississippi and New Mexico. The company's own recall notice also names New Mexico and Mississippi among the Brookshire Grocery states.

The FDA lists confirmed product distribution in six states — Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas — and adds the standard caveat that product "could have been distributed further, reaching additional states."

The numbers, labeled

Recall volume: 1,589,577 dozen shell eggs, the figure in both the company's recall announcement and CDC's food safety alert. That is a count of product pulled from the market, not a count of contaminated or tested eggs. CBS News described the same recall as 1.6 million cartons and more than 19 million eggs.

Outbreak-confirmed illnesses: As of the July 24, 2026 update on both the CDC investigation page and the FDA advisory, 98 people infected with the outbreak strain have been reported from 17 states, with 26 hospitalizations and no deaths. Illness onset dates range from Nov. 21, 2025 to June 30, 2026 — meaning the outbreak predates the recalled cartons.

The 17 states with cases, per the FDA: Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.

CDC cautions that the real total is likely higher than the reported count, because many people recover without medical care and are never tested, and because it usually takes three to four weeks to determine whether a sick person is part of an outbreak. CDC also says the outbreak may not be limited to the states with known illnesses.

What investigators actually have

Of 44 sick people interviewed, 40 — 91% — reported eating shell eggs before getting sick, according to both agencies.

FDA ran a traceback based on where sick people said they bought or ate eggs and identified Midwest Poultry Services as a common egg source. Separately, the company collected samples at its Texas farms; some tested positive for Salmonella, and whole genome sequencing by the firm's third-party lab found some samples matched the outbreak strain. The firm shared those results with the FDA on July 21, and the recall followed the next day.

The agencies' language is careful, and so is ours: FDA says the recalled eggs are "a likely source of illnesses in this outbreak" and states plainly that this producer "does not account for all the illnesses in this outbreak." Additional investigation is ongoing to determine whether there are other sources. The FDA lists the investigation status as ongoing.

CDC adds one wrinkle that matters for anyone who does get sick: bacteria from the 98 patient samples showed predicted nonsusceptibility to ciprofloxacin and resistance to nalidixic acid. Most Salmonella illnesses clear without antibiotics, CDC says, but if antibiotics are needed, some illnesses in this outbreak may not respond to commonly recommended drugs and may require a different choice.

Symptoms to watch

Salmonella illness usually begins 12 to 72 hours after eating contaminated food and lasts four to seven days, per the FDA. Symptoms include diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps. Children under five, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are more likely to have severe infections. In rare cases the FDA notes the infection can reach the bloodstream and cause more severe illness, including infected aneurysms, endocarditis and arthritis.

Sources: CDC food safety alert and investigation update for the shell egg Salmonella outbreak (last updated July 24, 2026); FDA Outbreak Investigation of Salmonella: Eggs (July 2026) and the Midwest Poultry Services, L.P. company recall announcement; CBS News and Quartz, Aug. 14, 2026, on the Class I upgrade.