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A major salmonella outbreak involving 1.7 million eggs from the August Egg company has infected 79 people in seven states.
The company issued a recall on June 6 for brown cage-free and brown certified organic eggs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is advising people not eat, sell, or serve recalled eggs.
Twenty-one people were hospitalized across California, Nevada, Kentucky, New Jersey, Nebraska and Washington. No deaths have been reported. The number of people infected is likely much higher, as many people recover easily, and it can take up to four weeks to determine if a few sick people constitute an outbreak.
On June 6, 2025, August Egg Company recalled eggs sold to Walmart (WMT), Save Mart, FoodMaxx, Lucky, Smart & Final, Safeway (ACI), Raleys, Food 4 Less (KR) and Ralphs.
Salmonella can be fatal for young children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. For others, it causes fever, diarrhea, nausea and pain. In rare cases, it can cause infected aneurysms and arthritis. It’s also costly: the annual impact of foodborne salmonella is $4.1 billion, according to the Department of Agriculture, with $88 million in lost productivity.
Salmonella gets into eggs when shells are contaminated by fecal matter. For the last 50 years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has been monitoring strict cleaning and inspection of shells. But salmonella can also infect the ovaries of healthy hens, leading to contamination before shells are even formed. This can happen to any chicken, regardless of whether it’s organic, free-range, kosher or halal.
Food safety has been thrust into the spotlight after massive cuts to the Department of Agriculture, the FDA and the CDC under the Trump administration. NPR reported last month that some health inspectors’ workload has doubled after downsizing, and that consumers are becoming more vulnerable to foodborne illness.