Bird flu cases continue to spread across the United States — and it doesn’t appear that the outbreak’s effects on the egg supply chain will start to ease soon. Even though the price of eggs has already risen by 53% compared to last year, the USDA claims the price of eggs could increase by up to 41% in the months to come.
To keep up with rising costs and nationwide shortages, many poultry producers, grocery stores, restaurants, and fast food chains are raising the prices of menu items containing eggs. Still, there is one popular fast food chain that won’t be adding an egg surcharge anytime soon: McDonald’s.
As the chain’s North American chief impact officer, Michael Gonda, shared to LinkedIn on Wednesday: “Unlike others making news recently, you definitely WON’T see McDonald’s USA issuing surcharges on eggs.” The announcement comes just before the 50th anniversary of the chain’s Egg McMuffin — McDonald’s only breakfast sandwich that includes a fresh-cracked egg. That means there’s $1 McMuffins on the app this Sunday to celebrate, and the same low-cost breakfast will stay on the menu as is for the foreseeable future.
How other chains are dealing with rising egg costs
Not only does this announcement come just before the McMuffin’s 50th birthday, but it’s also a year after McDonald’s successfully met its goal of sourcing all its eggs from 100% cage-free sources — a goal the chain set in 2015. According to the company’s website, McDonald’s purchased nearly two billion eggs in 2023, so it’s no small feat. Not to mention, it’s actually one of the few fast food chains that use real eggs, too.
While McDonald’s is one restaurant chain that plans to absorb the extra costs that are coming with rising egg prices, it’s not the only one. Cracker Barrel has also refused to give into the egg surcharges. Other chains like Denny’s put a temporary surcharge on menu items containing eggs, while Waffle House is putting a 50-cent surcharge on every egg it sells.
So, when can we expect some normalcy to return? While there have been attempts to contain the virus, bird flu spreads easily among egg-laying hens, so it’s difficult to eradicate the virus completely. To further combat the virus and rising egg costs, the U.S. government has pledged to import more eggs and invest $1 billion in fighting the spread. Already, Turkey has plans to aid the U.S. amid the egg price crisis beginning by the end of February. Until a solution is reached, expect egg costs to continue to rise at stores and restaurants. But not at McDonald’s, for now.
