A dozen eggs now costs more than 1 pound of ground beef

By Alex Tanzi | Bloomberg

The price of a dozen eggs in the US exceeded the cost of a pound of ground beef.

The global bird flu has wiped out about 100 million poultry and high production costs have pushed the price of a carton of 12 eggs to a record $4.82 in January, up from less than $2 a year earlier.

Meanwhile, the price of a pound of ground chuck has fallen to $4.64 from a 2022 peak of $5.12 last August.

U.S. chicken producers also are trying to do their part to bring down egg prices by selling 400 million surplus eggs to food producers.

First they have to convince the FDA to change the rule that prevents eggs laid by chickens in the meat industry to be used for human consumption.

The National Chicken Council trade group submitted a formal petition to the Food and Drug Administration Thursday asking officials to drop a rule passed in 2009 that keeps chicken producers from selling their excess eggs because they aren’t refrigerated right away.

The FDA said it would review the Chicken Council’s petition and respond directly to that group. But concerns about food safety are what drove them to adopt the rule that prohibited the sale of the eggs in the first place.

When a broiler hatchery produces eggs, they are kept at 65 degrees until they are ready to be placed in incubators to be hatched. The FDA said in its rule that eggs that are going to be used for food need to be stored at temperatures below 45 degrees within 36 hours.

The Chicken Council said it believes the eggs would be safe because they would be pasteurized before they were used by food producers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.