Undeclared eggs in FDA food recalls

776 FDA food recall records since 2012 name undeclared eggs, out of 7,778 undeclared allergen recalls in total. 525 are Class I. Data last updated 2 September 2026.

Records of 29,386

776

Share of all recalls

2.6%

Class I of 776

525

Reported between

2012 to 2026

Eggs as a major food allergen

Egg reaches finished products as a binder, a wash and a lecithin source, so an undeclared egg recall is usually a specification that did not carry the allergen forward rather than a missing ingredient.

These records are a subset of the 7,778 undeclared allergen recalls. A single recall frequently names more than one allergen, so the counts across this family overlap. An undeclared allergen recall means a food contained one of the major allergens and the label did not say so, either because the wrong label was applied or because an ingredient carried an allergen nobody traced.

What is different about these records

By product, Eggs is weighted toward bakery: 39.4% of the records here against 12.9% across the corpus.

Recalls involving undeclared eggs are more often the serious kind: 67.7% are Class I, where the FDA judges there is a reasonable probability of serious health consequences, against 44% of all records.

A recall involving undeclared eggs stays open a median of 130 days between the report and termination, against 215 days for the corpus as a whole. Termination follows the firm accounting for every unit of the affected lot.

These recalls stay local: 8.2% state nationwide distribution, against 20.7% across the corpus.

What the law says about eggs

Eggs are one of the nine in 21 U.S.C. 321(qq)(1), and any ingredient containing egg protein, albumen, egg white, lysozyme, is a major food allergen under paragraph (2). Section 343(w)(4) is the paragraph that matters for egg: a flavouring, colouring or incidental additive that contains a major food allergen is subject to the labelling requirement regardless of the general exemption for incidental additives in 21 CFR 101.100(a)(3), so an egg wash, a glazing agent or a fining agent that leaves egg protein in the food has to be declared. Egg is also the one major allergen whose own regulation, the shell egg rule at 21 CFR part 118, is about a pathogen rather than the allergen: part 118 addresses Salmonella Enteritidis in the egg itself and says nothing about egg as an ingredient in other foods.

The clause this maps to

A preventive controls plan covers an undeclared eggs allergen under the clauses below. This is where the control belongs, not a finding against any firm named on this page: a recall record states a reason, and most of these recalls were initiated by the firm itself.

21 CFR 117.135(c)(2)

Food allergen controls: the written preventive controls that keep an allergen out of a food it does not belong in, and that get the allergens present onto the label.

21 CFR 101.4

Ingredient declaration: every ingredient listed by its common name, in descending order of predominance, on the label of a packaged food.

21 CFR 117 subpart G

Supply-chain programme: the approval and verification a receiving facility runs on a supplier when the hazard is controlled before the ingredient arrives.

By year

Counts are by the date the FDA reported the enforcement action. That date runs behind the date a firm started a recall, so the most recent year is always partial.

Firms with the most records

A firm appears here because it reported recalls, which is what a working recall procedure produces. A high count frequently reflects a single event split across many product codes rather than many separate failures.

• Koogee-Queen Anne, LLC78
• Whole Foods Market22
• Chicago Sweet Connections, Inc.20
• Ottogi America Inc19
• NEW GRAINS GLUTEN FREE BAKERY16
• Bosket Bread Company, LLC15
• Hillside Orchard Farms Inc.14
• Giant Eagle, Inc.13
• LQNN Inc.12
• Mrs Gerry's Kitchen, Inc11
• Butter Creek Farms, Inc.11
• Whole Foods Market Brand 365, Llc10

Where the recalling firms are

The state is the location of the recalling firm, not where the product was sold. Distribution is recorded separately on each record.

• California139
• Kentucky82
• Washington57
• Texas54
• New York49
• Illinois37
• Pennsylvania33
• New Jersey33
• Florida32
• Oregon21
• Ohio21
• Minnesota20

Most recently reported

Questions

How many FDA recalls involve undeclared eggs?

776 FDA food recall records since 2012 name undeclared eggs, out of 7,778 undeclared allergen recalls in total. That makes it the sixth most frequently undeclared of the allergens tracked here.

Is eggs a major food allergen?

Egg reaches finished products as a binder, a wash and a lecithin source, so an undeclared egg recall is usually a specification that did not carry the allergen forward rather than a missing ingredient.

Which clause covers undeclared eggs?

Allergen labelling failures are covered under 21 CFR 117.135(c)(2), the food allergen preventive controls, together with 21 CFR 101.4 for the ingredient declaration itself. Where the allergen arrived inside a purchased ingredient, the supply-chain programme in 21 CFR 117 subpart G is the control that should have caught it.

All FDA food recall data