--- title: "FAQ's: The 2026 Shell Egg Salmonella Outbreak: Questions and Answers for the Public" date: 2026-08-08T08:05:00-07:00 author: Bill Marler canonical_url: "https://marlerclark.com/news_events/faqs-the-2026-shell-egg-salmonella-outbreak-questions-and-answers-for-the-public" section: News --- [All News](/news_events) / [Press Releases](https://marlerclark.com/news_events/press-releases) / # FAQ's: The 2026 Shell Egg Salmonella Outbreak: Questions and Answers for the Public Updated Saturday, August 8, 2026. Everything below comes from the federal pages linked in the answers. This is general information about an outbreak, not medical advice and not legal advice about anybody’s particular situation. If you are sick, call a doctor. If you take one thing from this page, take the fifth question. **Where does the government discuss this outbreak?** FDA’s advisory is [Outbreak Investigation of *Salmonella*: Eggs (July 2026)](https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/outbreak-investigation-salmonella-eggs-july-2026), and it carries the case counts, the state list, the distribution map and a full table of every recalled item with brand, size, UPC and code. CDC’s page is [*Salmonella* Outbreak Linked to Shell Eggs](https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/outbreaks/shell-eggs-07-26/index.html). The recall itself is posted separately as [Midwest Poultry Services, L.P. Recalls Shell Eggs](https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/midwest-poultry-services-lp-recalls-shell-eggs-due-possible-salmonella-enteritidis-contamination). FDA also publishes general [egg safety guidance](https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/what-you-need-know-about-egg-safety) on buying, storing and cooking eggs. **What happened?** Midwest Poultry Services, which also operates as MPS Egg Farms and is based in North Manchester, Indiana, found *Salmonella* in its own sampling at two Texas farms. A third-party laboratory sequenced those samples and found that some of them matched the strain making people sick. The company shared those results with FDA on July 21, 2026, and on July 22 it recalled 1,589,577 dozen white shell eggs and brown cage-free shell eggs. That is more than nineteen million eggs. **How many people are sick?** 98 people, with 26 hospitalizations and no deaths. Texas accounts for 73 of the illnesses. Of 44 sick people with information available, 40, or 91 percent, reported eating eggs before they became ill. **Which states have reported illnesses?** Seventeen: Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia. Recalled product distribution has been confirmed in only six states, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, and FDA cautions that the eggs could have gone further. Set those two lists beside each other and the mismatch is obvious. People got sick in eleven states where nobody has confirmed the eggs were sold, which is one more reason FDA says this producer does not account for all the illnesses. **The illnesses started when?** November 21, 2025. The most recent began June 30, 2026. That is a span of more than seven months between the first person who got sick and the recall, and it is the part of this outbreak I would want the public to sit with. The eggs were not recalled because somebody caught it early. They were recalled after seven months of illnesses, when the company’s own testing finally lined up with what the sick people’s samples had been saying all along. **Could recalled eggs still be in my refrigerator right now?** Yes. Go look. The recalled cartons carry sell-by or best-by dates running through August 17, 2026, which means eggs from this recall can still be sitting in a home refrigerator today. Check for plant code **P-1950** or **0840962**, sometimes printed without the leading zero as 840962, along with a Julian date between **157 and 184**, printed on the left or right side of the carton in date-coding ink. The eggs were produced between June 6 and July 3, 2026. They were sold under the Kroger, Simple Truth, Brookshire’s, Country Morning and Cal-Maine Sunups brands, in cartons of 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36 and 60, and in food service cases and flats. FDA’s advisory has the full table with UPC numbers and photographs of the cartons. **What if I dumped the eggs into a bowl or a different container?** Throw them away. That is FDA’s own instruction: if you stored eggs without the original packaging and cannot tell whether they are part of the recall, discard them. Nothing about an egg tells you where it came from once the carton is gone. **Where were they sold?** Kroger stores in Texas and Louisiana, Brookshire Grocery stores in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, and smaller retail and food service outlets in those states plus Mississippi and New Mexico. They also went to restaurants and other food service customers, which is why bulk cases and flats are on the recall list along with retail cartons. **What do I do with them?** Throw them out, or take them back where you bought them for a refund. Do not wash them and use them anyway, and do not cook them for the dog. Then wash and sanitize the refrigerator shelf, the drawer, any container the carton sat in, and the counter, with hot soapy water, and wash your hands afterward. **Do the recalled eggs explain all 98 illnesses?** No, and FDA says so directly. The agency states that the recalled eggs are a likely source of illnesses **in part**, that Midwest Poultry Services does not account for all the illnesses in this outbreak, and that additional investigation is ongoing to determine whether there are other sources. Practically, that means clearing out your refrigerator does not close the file. Something else in the egg supply may still be out there, unnamed. **What are the symptoms?** Diarrhea, which can be bloody, along with fever, stomach cramps, nausea and vomiting. Illness usually begins within twelve to 72 hours of eating the contaminated food, though it can start as early as six hours or as late as six days, and it typically lasts four to seven days. **How serious has this one been?** More serious than most. Of the 72 sick people for whom information was available, 26 were hospitalized. That is about 36 percent, against a hospitalization rate closer to twenty percent in a typical *Salmonella* outbreak. Severe infections can move into the bloodstream and cause infections of the heart valves or an artery. Children under five, adults 65 and older, and people with weakened immune systems are at the greatest risk. **Can this cause lasting problems after the diarrhea stops?** Sometimes. A minority of people develop reactive arthritis, which is joint pain and swelling that can start weeks later and last months or years, sometimes with eye irritation and painful urination. Lingering irritable bowel symptoms after a *Salmonella* infection are also well described. If something has not gone back to normal, tell a doctor you had a laboratory-confirmed *Salmonella* infection, because that history changes what they look for. **Can I catch it from another person?** Yes, if tiny amounts of stool reach somebody else’s mouth, which in practice means hands, bathrooms, diapers and kitchen surfaces. Households with young children and child care settings are where this happens. Anyone with diarrhea who works with food, in health care or in child care should be out of work until cleared, and the rules on that vary by state and county, so call your health department rather than guessing. **The shells looked clean. How can a clean egg make you sick?** Because with this particular bacterium the contamination is usually on the inside. *Salmonella* Enteritidis infects the hen and gets into the egg before the shell forms around it. A contaminated egg looks, smells and tastes completely normal. Nothing you can see on the outside of a carton tells you anything. **How should I cook eggs so they are safe?** Cook them until both the white and the yolk are firm, which is about 160 degrees Fahrenheit, and cook egg dishes like casseroles and custards to that same temperature. Keep eggs refrigerated at 40 degrees or below and throw out any that are cracked. For anything that calls for raw or barely cooked eggs, homemade mayonnaise, Caesar dressing, eggnog, hollandaise, cookie dough or cake batter, use pasteurized shell eggs or a pasteurized egg product, especially if you are cooking for a young child, an older adult, a pregnant woman or anyone whose immune system is compromised. Wash hands, utensils and counters with hot soapy water after handling raw eggs. **Is it safe to eat eggs now?** Nobody has told the public to stop eating eggs, and this recall covers a defined set of cartons from two Texas farms rather than the egg supply generally. Check your cartons against the codes, and cook eggs through. If you are in one of the groups above, this is a good season to skip the runny yolk. **What about my backyard chickens?** Not part of this outbreak, but worth saying anyway, because backyard flocks are a steady source of *Salmonella*illness in children every year. Birds carry it without looking sick, it is on their feathers and feet as well as in their droppings, and small children put their hands in their mouths. Wash hands after any contact with the birds or the coop, keep the birds out of the house, and do not let children under five handle them. **Is there not a vaccine for this?** There is, and the picture is more complicated than it is usually reported. Vaccines against *Salmonella*Enteritidis exist, and the great majority of table-egg pullets in this country are in fact vaccinated. It is an industry practice, not a federal requirement. FDA’s egg safety rule requires producers of this size to have a prevention plan, covering where they buy their chicks, biosecurity, rodent and pest control, cleaning and disinfection, environmental and egg testing, and refrigeration at 45 degrees. It does not require vaccination. Britain’s Lion Code, which gets cited as the model, is likewise an industry program rather than a government mandate. I got a version of this wrong in print once and was corrected by a poultry veterinarian who knew better, so the accurate version is the one above. **How many people really got sick?** Far more than 98. The long-standing federal estimate is that roughly 29 *Salmonella* illnesses occur in the community for every one that is laboratory confirmed and reported. On that arithmetic this outbreak is closer to three thousand people than to one hundred. That is an estimate rather than a count, but it is the government’s own way of thinking about the gap between what happens and what gets counted. **Does this keep happening?** This is the fourth multistate *Salmonella* Enteritidis outbreak traced to shell eggs in two years. [Milo’s Poultry Farms](https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/outbreak-investigation-salmonella-eggs-sept-2024) in Wisconsin, September 2024, 93 sick in twelve states with 34 hospitalized. [August Egg Company](https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/outbreak-investigation-salmonella-eggs-june-2025) in California, June 2025, 134 sick in ten states with 38 hospitalized and one death. [Country Eggs](https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/outbreak-investigation-salmonella-eggs-august-2025) in California, August 2025, 105 sick in fourteen states with 19 hospitalized. And now Midwest Poultry Services. Four different companies, one bacterium, and the same story each time. **I think I got sick. What should I do?** See a doctor and ask for a stool culture. That is what identifies *Salmonella* and lets the health department compare your strain against the outbreak strain, and without it you are simply not part of the count. Report the illness to your local health department. Keep the carton if you still have it, keep any remaining eggs rather than discarding them, and hold on to receipts, loyalty card records and credit card statements. **Do I have a legal claim?** You may. A laboratory-confirmed illness traced to a recalled food is generally a claim against the companies that produced, distributed and sold it, and it does not require proving anyone was careless. Marler Clark is investigating this outbreak on behalf of people who were sickened, so read that answer knowing where we sit. There is no charge to have us look at your situation and tell you whether there is anything there. We can be reached at 1-800-884-9840 or through [marlerclark.com](https://www.marlerclark.com/). **Where else should I look?** Your state health department, and FDA’s [safe handling advice](https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/safe-food-handling) for cleaning up after a recalled product. I wrote about this outbreak [when the recall was announced](https://www.marlerblog.com/case-news/so-much-for-maha-salmonella-outbreak-linked-to-19074924-recalled-eggs-in-17-states/), and I write daily at [marlerblog.com](https://www.marlerblog.com/) and publish [Food Safety News](https://www.foodsafetynews.com/), both free and without a paywall. ### Other Salmonella Lawsuits [Chipotle and QDOBA linked to Salmonella Outbreak linked to 345 Illnesses in 27 States](https://marlerclark.com/chipotle-linked-to-salmonella-outbreak-tied-to-peppers) [Egg Salmonella Outbreak Sickens 98 in 17 States](https://marlerclark.com/egg-salmonella-outbreak-sickens-98-in-17-states) [18 Sick with Salmonella from Moringa Capsules](https://marlerclark.com/18-sick-with-salmonella-from-moringa-capsules) [64 with Salmonella tied to Oysters](https://marlerclark.com/64-with-salmonella-tied-to-oysters) [Vega Farms Salmonella Outbreak Sickens 63](https://marlerclark.com/vega-farms-salmonella-outbreak-sickens-63) [Green Supplement causes Salmonella Outbreak](https://marlerclark.com/green-supplement-causes-salmonella-outbreak) [Salmonella Outbreak tied to Metabolic Meals](https://marlerclark.com/salmonella-outbreak-tied-to-metabolic-meals) [Kentucky Salmonella outbreak linked to Ramsey’s Diners and Missy’s Pies](https://marlerclark.com/kentucky-salmonella-outbreak-linked-to-ramseys-diners-and-missys-pies) [Salmonella Egg Outbreak sickens 63 in California](https://marlerclark.com/salmonella-egg-outbreak-sickens-63-in-california) [Cucumbers with Salmonella - 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