The Midwest Poultry Services Egg Recall: A Home Cook’s Guide to Checking Your Carton and Cooking Safely

Before you crack another egg into the pan, it’s worth taking thirty seconds to check your carton. In July 2026, Midwest Poultry Services, L.P. voluntarily recalled more than 1.5 million dozen eggs – over 19 million individual eggs – after routine testing flagged the possible presence of Salmonella Enteritidis at two of its Texas farms. The eggs reached grocery shelves under well-known store brands, including Kroger and Brookshire’s, which means a carton sitting in your fridge right now could be part of it.

This isn’t just another headline to scroll past. It’s a reminder that eggs – one of the most-used ingredients in American kitchens – carry a real, if usually low, food safety risk that every home cook should understand. Here’s what actually happened, how to check whether your eggs are affected, and how to handle eggs safely in your kitchen going forward.

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What Happened: The Midwest Poultry Services Egg Recall Explained

On July 22, 2026, Midwest Poultry Services announced it was pulling 1,589,577 dozen eggs from the market. The company, based in Indiana with production farms in Texas, discovered the potential contamination through its own environmental monitoring program – the kind of routine internal testing that’s supposed to catch problems before they reach consumers. According to the recall notice, the eggs were produced and distributed between June 6 and July 3, 2026, with sell-by or best-by dates stretching into mid-August.

As of the recall announcement, no illnesses had been confirmed as linked to the affected eggs. The company says it immediately rerouted eggs from the flagged farms to a pasteurization facility, which uses heat treatment to neutralize bacteria before the product can reach store shelves again.

Is Your Carton Affected? How to Check in 30 Seconds

This is where the culinary reality kicks in: recalls don’t affect every egg from every brand – they affect specific batches, identifiable by a code printed directly on the carton. Here’s what to look for:

• Plant codes: P-1950 or 0840962
• Julian date range: between 157 and 184 (this is the day-of-year code, not a calendar date – it’s printed alongside the plant code)
• Location on carton: left or right side, in date-coding ink

Brands included in the recall: Kroger, Simple Truth, Brookshire’s, Country Morning, and Sunups, along with bulk eggs sold to restaurants and foodservice operators.

If your carton doesn’t match both the plant code and the Julian date range, your eggs are not part of this recall – even if the brand name matches. That distinction matters, because plenty of Kroger and Brookshire’s eggs on shelves right now are perfectly safe.

Kroger and Brookshire’s Egg Recall: Which States Are Affected

The recalled eggs were distributed to a specific regional footprint, not nationwide:

• Kroger stores: Texas and Louisiana
• Brookshire Grocery stores: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Mississippi
• Other smaller retailers and foodservice accounts across Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana

If you live outside this region, your risk exposure is very low – but it’s still worth checking the code if you’ve traveled or ordered eggs through a foodservice supplier tied to these states.

Why This Matters in the Kitchen, Not Just the Headlines

Salmonella Enteritidis is unusual among foodborne pathogens because it can live inside an egg, not just on the shell. A hen carrying the bacteria in her reproductive tract can pass it directly into the egg before the shell even forms. That’s why washing an egg’s shell doesn’t eliminate the risk – the danger, when present, is on the inside.

This is precisely why cooking method matters so much with eggs, more than with many other foods. A fully cooked fried egg with a firm yolk is far safer than eggs used raw or lightly cooked – and that has real implications for classic recipes home cooks make every week.

The Recipes Worth Rethinking Right Now

If you regularly make dishes that use raw or undercooked eggs, this recall is a good prompt to revisit technique – recall or no recall, these are the dishes where egg safety carries the most weight:

• Homemade mayonnaise and aioli – use pasteurized eggs, or a pasteurized egg product, when making raw emulsions
• Caesar dressing – traditional recipes call for raw egg yolk; pasteurized eggs are a safer substitute with no flavor compromise
• Cookie dough and cake batter – that pre-bake taste test is riskier than it feels; look for heat-treated flour and pasteurized eggs if you bake with kids
• Tiramisu, mousse, and eggnog – all rely on raw or barely-cooked eggs; pasteurized eggs are widely available in the same dairy aisle as regular cartons
• Soft-boiled or sunny-side-up eggs – still your call to make, but know that a runny yolk carries more risk than a fully set one, especially for young children, older adults, pregnant individuals, and anyone immunocompromised

Making hollandaise or a soft-poached brunch dish this weekend? Check out our guide to the 15 best Eggs Benedict recipes – including tips on which techniques keep the yolk safely cooked without losing that classic silky texture.

Cooking Temperatures That Actually Kill Salmonella

Temperature – not time, not visual doneness alone – is what neutralizes salmonella. For reliable food safety:

• Cook eggs until both the white and yolk are firm
• Egg dishes like frittatas, quiches, and casseroles should reach an internal temperature of 160°F (71°C)
• If you use a thermometer for meat, it’s worth using one for baked egg dishes too, especially when cooking for a crowd

What to Do If You Have Recalled Eggs at Home

1. Don’t taste-test to check. Contaminated eggs look, smell, and taste completely normal.
2. Don’t rinse and reuse the carton for other purposes without washing it separately from food-contact surfaces.
3. Return them. Midwest Poultry Services and the retailers involved are offering full refunds – bring the carton back to your point of purchase. Want the full technical details – product photos, exact UPC codes, and the complete list of affected package sizes? View the official recall notice on FDA.gov.
4. Sanitize your fridge shelf with hot, soapy water or a diluted bleach solution if the carton was stored loose or if it may have leaked.
5. Watch for symptoms if you’ve already eaten the eggs: fever, diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea, or vomiting typically appear 6 hours to 6 days after exposure. Most healthy adults recover without treatment within a week, but children under 5, adults over 65, pregnant individuals, and anyone with a weakened immune system should contact a doctor if symptoms appear.

Building Better Egg Habits, Recall or Not

A recall is a useful nudge, but egg safety is really a year-round kitchen habit:

• Store eggs in their original carton in the coldest part of the fridge – not the door, where temperature fluctuates most
• Keep eggs refrigerated at or below 40°F (4°C)
• Check for cracks before buying and before using; discard cracked eggs
• Wash hands, utensils, and surfaces after handling raw eggs, the same way you would with raw poultry
• When cooking for someone in a higher-risk group, default to pasteurized eggs for any dish that isn’t fully cooked

Frequently Asked Questions