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Don’t Scramble: Here’s the Egg Info You Need

Eggs are a big part of many spring celebrations and activities. Kids love to decorate and dye them, hide them, and cook them with their families in festive foods.

The spring holidays are the egg industry’s biggest annual sales events. However, this year the egg supply is limited due to high path avian influenza (HPAI), also known as “bird flu.” Egg prices have reached record highs in recent months as bird flu outbreaks have hit poultry farms and forced producers to cull tens of millions of hens.

While pricing and supply may pose problems for many families this spring, the likelihood that eggs from infected poultry are found in the retail market is low. Proper storage and preparation further reduce the risk. Whether you source your eggs from a local grocery store, farmers market or a neighbor with a home flock, there is no evidence that the virus can be transmitted to humans through properly preparing eggs. (Source: FDA)

The Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE) provides information on safe egg handling to ensure families can observe spring celebrations and prevent foodborne illness from coming as an unwanted guest:


These eggs-pert food safety tips will help keep kids and families safe this spring season!

The Partnership spoke with a few of its collaborative partners who work directly in the chicken and egg industry to get clarity on the current crisis and when consumers might see relief at the grocery store checkout.

Rafael Rivera, Ph.D., director of food safety and production programs with USPoultry, who works with egg production suppliers, provided some perspective to the current production difficulties.

“The complications stem from this round of infections being so intense. New infections are starting to die down, so new pullets are being able to be placed, and it is helping increase the supply and will reduce egg prices,” said Dr. Rivera. “The industry and government agencies are pooling their resources to stamp out the disease as quickly as possible. This action, along with strong biosecurity practices, is the best tool to control the disease. The available eggs are safe to eat when following proper handling instructions.”

According to the New York Times, new data reported on April 10 showed that egg prices at the grocery store continued to climb in March, rising 5.9% over the previous month and 60.4% over March 2024 prices.

Experts with the National Chicken Council (NCC) shared how HPAI affects the market for chicken products. NCC advises consumers that HPAI affects 92% of laying hen flocks. Only 8% of chicken farms that are affected produce broiler chickens for meat, and those flocks are culled and not moved to the market.

The National Frozen and Refrigerated Foods (NFRA) spoke about the HPAI egg crisis from the farm and production side during their recent podcast “Eggs: An Update on Consumer Demand & Retailer Strategies.” NFRA discussed the current egg landscape, the impact of the evolving avian flu, and what the recovery outlook entails, as well as the resources available to retailers about consumer demand and egg promotion.

While egg shortages may change how we celebrate, they don’t have to take the joy out of spring. With a little creativity and flexibility, your traditions can still bloom!

Sweet Treats, Healthy Eats!

“Sweeten Your Holiday with Food Safety”

PFSE Executive Director Britanny Saunier spoke briefly with Jane DeMarchi, President of the North American Millers’ Association, on Facebook Live.

Watch this video to learn about the flour milling process, why flour is considered a raw ingredient, and how you can enjoy baked goods and desserts safely.

‘Tis the season for baking! Sweet treats — cookies, cakes and pies — are delicious traditional goodies for winter holiday celebrations. 

According to NCSolutions, household spending on sweet and dessert items and baking supplies were 20% greater in the first two weeks of November than at the same time last year.

Many Americans love baking at home. But not everyone is aware that mishandling raw batter or raw dough can be risky to their families’ health — especially for children! These important tips will help families keep holiday baking traditions safe.

Carefully handle raw baking ingredients

Our favorite holiday cookies and other treats are made from scratch using raw ingredients. Two of these raw ingredients — raw flour and raw eggs — can contain harmful bacteria that can cause foodborne illness. Exposure to heat during the baking process is a necessary step to make sure that foods made with raw flour and raw eggs are safe to eat.

Say no to raw dough! Eating raw dough or batter can be risky — especially for young children who have underdeveloped immune systems, putting them at risk for serious illness from bacteria like Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, Campylobacter and others. 

Always wash hands with soap and water after handling raw ingredients, and uncooked dough and batter.

To keep the holidays bright and happy, pay attention to these simple home handling steps for baking ingredients:

  • Raw eggs: To prevent illness from bacteria, keep eggs refrigerated at 40 °F or below until ready to use. Bake desserts containing eggs to a safe internal temperature of 160 °F as measured with a food thermometer. Wash hands with soap and water after handling raw eggs.
  • Raw flour: Follow package directions on baking mixes and other flour-containing products for correct cooking temperatures and times. Keep all raw foods, like eggs and flour, separate from ready-to eat foods. Remember, flour is a powder and spreads easily. Wash hands with soap and water after handling raw flour.

Handling these raw ingredients with care will help everyone stay healthy while baking at home.

Prevent cross-contamination while baking

Cross-contamination is how bacteria can be spread from hands and surfaces to your food.

Cut down on cross-contamination of harmful germs with these baking basics:

  • When baking at home, wash utensils, appliances and work surfaces with hot water and soap before and after they come in contact with raw dough, raw flour, and eggs or egg-containing foods.
  • Wash your hands with soap and water thoroughly after contact with raw dough and raw ingredients, like flour and eggs.
  • Your digital device is dirty. Try to keep hands off of your smartphone and tablet while you are cooking or baking. If you touch your device, wash your hands with soap and water.


Remember: Washing hands with soap and water for 20 seconds before and after handling raw ingredients is the best way to reduce the spread of germs that can make you sick.

Baking safely at home

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, you want to make sure that no one in your household gets food poisoning this holiday season. Now is the time to model food safety behavior for your children and grandchildren. Let them know that baked cookies or desserts are well worth the wait!

Download this baking infographic, also available in Spanish language! Following these tips will help keep you and your loved ones healthy while baking at home.

Do you have a favorite family dessert recipe? It’s easy to turn that family favorite into a safe family recipe — and your kids can help! The Safe Recipe Activity teaches kids how to turn a basic recipe into a safe recipe. It’s a fun, educational activity that your entire family will enjoy.

These cookie and dessert recipes already build food safety and hand hygiene prompts into the act of baking. Give these delicious sweets a try at home!

This season will be so much sweeter if we all stay healthy. From the Partnership for Food Safety Education, we wish you a happy and safe baking season!

Shawnte Loeri is the Communications Associate with the Partnership for Food Safety Education. She enjoys baking vegan desserts with her family and friends. Shawnte can be reached at sloeri@fightbac.org.

It’s a Home Baking Bonanza!

Not unlike a delicious yeast bread, consumer spending on home baking rises during the holiday season. Cookies, cakes, pies and breads are delicious traditional goodies for winter holiday celebrations. 

According to NCSolutions, household spending on sweet and dessert items have been high throughout the COVID-19 pandemic — especially products used for baking. Household spending on confections, baked goods and baking supplies was up 9% in the period February 24 through September 30 when compared to the same period in 2019.*

Many Americans greatly enjoy baking at home. But not everyone is aware that mishandling raw batter or raw dough can be risky to their families’ health — especially for children! These important tips will help families keep holiday baking traditions safe.

Handle baking ingredients with care

Our favorite holiday cookies and other treats are made from scratch using raw ingredients. Two of these raw ingredients — raw flour and raw eggs — can contain harmful bacteria that can cause foodborne illness. Exposure to heat — baking — is a necessary step to make sure that foods made with raw flour and raw eggs are safe.

Eating raw dough or batter can be risky — especially for young children who have underdeveloped immune systems, putting them at risk for serious illness from bacteria like Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, Campylobacter and others. 

Always wash hands with soap and water after handling raw ingredients, and uncooked dough and batter.

To keep the holidays bright and happy, pay attention to these simple home handling steps for baking ingredients:

  • Raw eggs: To prevent illness from bacteria, keep eggs refrigerated at 40 °F or below until ready to use. Bake desserts containing eggs to a safe internal temperature of 160 °F as measured with a food thermometer. Wash hands with soap and water after handling raw eggs.
  • Raw flour: Follow package directions on baking mixes and other flour-containing products for correct cooking temperatures and times. Keep all raw foods, like eggs and flour and eggs, separate from ready-to eat foods. Remember, flour is a powder and spreads easily. Wash hands with soap and water after handling raw flour.


Handling these raw ingredients with care will help everyone stay healthy while baking at home.

Prevent cross-contamination while baking

Cross-contamination is how bacteria can be spread from hands and surfaces to your food.

Cut down on cross-contamination of harmful germs with these baking basics:

  • When baking at home, wash utensils, appliances and work surfaces with hot water and soap before and after they come in contact with raw dough, raw flour, and eggs or egg-containing foods.
  • Wash your hands with soap and water thoroughly after contact with raw dough and raw ingredients, like flour and eggs.
  • Your digital device is dirty. Try to keep hands off of your smartphone and tablet while you are cooking or baking. If you touch your device, wash your hands with soap and water.


Remember: Washing hands with soap and water for 20 seconds before and after handling raw ingredients is the best way to reduce the spread of germs that can make you sick.

A healthy holiday home

With the current health threat of COVID-19, you want to make sure that no one in your household gets food poisoning this holiday season. Now is the time to model food safety behavior for your children and grandchildren. Let them know that baked cookies or desserts are well worth the wait!

Do you have a favorite family cookie recipe? It’s easy to turn that family favorite into a safe family recipe — and your kids can help! The Safe Recipe Activity teaches kids how to turn a basic recipe into a safe recipe. It’s a fun, educational activity that your entire family will enjoy.

These great cookie and dessert recipes already build food safety and hand hygiene prompts into the act of baking. Give these delicious sweets a try at home!

This season will be so much sweeter if we all stay healthy. From the Partnership for Food Safety Education, we wish you a happy and safe baking season!

Shawnte Loeri is the Communications Associate with the Partnership for Food Safety Education. She enjoys baking vegan desserts with her family and friends. Shawnte can be reached at sloeri@fightbac.org.



*NCSolutions CPG Insights Tracker Shows Sustained Consumer Interest in Confections, Baked Goods and Baking Supplies, Led by 38% Higher Sales of Baking Mixes

This Thanksgiving — Simple, Safe & Sane

A Healthy Home Holiday

Keeping your family safe from a foodborne illness is more important than ever. With the healthcare system fully employed to help people who have coronavirus, it is important to stay healthy and stay out of the hospital emergency room.

The Partnership for Food Safety Education urges all Americans to follow the CDC’s guidance on holiday gatherings and plan to not congregate with people from outside of your household. COVID-19 is a very serious risk — plan accordingly.

For your household-only Thanksgiving meal, here are a few ideas for keeping it simple and setting yourself up for success:

(1) Prepare a smaller traditional turkey

  • A small turkey of 8 pounds will feed 8 people and take about 2.5 hours to roast. Remember, a food thermometer is essential to successful turkey roasting. The internal temperature of the turkey should reach 165 °F. Once it does, remove it from the oven, and let it rest for 20 minutes.
  • A bone-in turkey breast is a great option for a household meal. A bone-in whole turkey breast of 4 to 6 pounds will feed 6 people. It will take between 1.5 to 2 hours to roast and — again — it is only done when your thermometer reaches 165 °F. Let it rest 20 minutes or more before serving.


(2) Focus on favorite side dishes!

  • Choose your two favorite sides to prepare. Keep things simple, and set yourself up for success by limiting the number of side dishes you make.
  • When using delicious frozen options, remember to serve them safely by following package and preparation instructions.


(3) Follow the Core Four practices for safety

  • Clean: Every recipe begins with handwashing. Wash hands with soap and water before starting food prep — every meal, every time. Wash your hands often with soap and water throughout the day.
  • Separate: Prevent cross-contamination from harmful bacteria by separating raw meat, poultry, seafood and eggs from other foods in your grocery shopping cart, grocery bags and in your refrigerator. Use one cutting board for fresh produce and a separate one for raw meat, poultry and seafood.
  • Cook: Food is safely cooked when it reaches a high enough internal temperature to kill the harmful bacteria that cause foodborne illness. Use a food thermometer which measures the internal temperature of cooked meat, poultry and egg dishes, to make sure that the food is cooked to a safe internal temperature.
  • Chill: Refrigerate foods quickly because cold temperatures slow the growth of harmful bacteria. Keeping a constant refrigerator temperature of 40 °F or below is one of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of foodborne illness.


When home cooks follow the Clean, Separate, Cook and Chill food safety steps, they will help reduce the risk of food poisoning.

We’ve got many delicious, downloadable recipes that include basic food safety steps built right in. Join our e-mail list for reminders and resources on home food safety.

The Partnership wishes you a simple, safe and sane holiday season!

Consumer Education Best of Times

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” — A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

We have seen such a dichotomy of events throughout the year that has been 2020. The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on those involved within the food system has been unprecedented. The pandemic has been likened to a hurricane that knows no shore. With the closure of dine-in restaurants, the retail grocery industry instantaneously became the primary source of food to customers in the U.S.

There have been a number of disruptions throughout the food system, from the rush on stores with food stockpiling, to the lack of product availability due to temporary facility shutdowns. The demand for home delivery and curbside pickup grew at lightspeed. The food system has been shaken, but it is resilient. With the increase of meals prepared at home, food safety awareness has never been more urgent and relevant for the customers we serve.

Over the last two decades, the Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE) has served as the leading voice in promoting safe food handling messaging. The “core four” messages of Clean, Separate, Cook and Chill serve as the cornerstone messages to connect with consumers.  Over the last three years, the Partnership has driven successful campaigns to millions of Americans including The Story of Your Dinner, Don’t Wing It, and most recently, the Safe Recipe Style Guide. Coupled with the appointments of strong food safety education advocates, Dr. Mindy M. Brashears, USDA FSIS Undersecretary for Food Safety and Frank Yiannas, FDA Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response, I am confident we have the best leadership to advance consumer food safety education for a brighter tomorrow!

On July 13, 2020, the FDA introduced The New Era of Smarter Food Safety, FDA’s Blueprint for the Future. Of the four core elements introduced, Food Safety Culture has the promise to positively impact food safety education for consumers spending more time in their home kitchens. Specific to developing and promoting a smarter food safety education campaign, the FDA calls out several concepts, including understanding and utilizing new technologies relevant to food safety, engaging new partners in a broad coalition to promote food safety culture, and using tech-enabled popular mediums and tools, such as smart home devices, smart phones, digital platforms, to help reach consumers with “smarter” food safety messages.

Does “smarter” food safety sound like a science-fiction experiment? Hardly. Over the last few years, major cities have been investing heavily in smart technology to help advance transportation, public safety, and environment challenges. Take a look at the investments being made by these cities across the country: Atlanta, GA; Nashville, TN; Charlotte, NC; and Lake Nona in Orlando, FL. When evaluating these smart city solutions, it is worth noting they are all people led and technology enabled. It is worth remembering this as we focus on food safety culture.

More recently on October 6, 2020, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service hosted Food Safety: Consumer Outreach and Education Today and for the Future. During this meeting, agencies, associations and business leaders provided a state of the union on leading consumer food safety education efforts. We will continue to build upon these efforts when the Partnership hosts Now You Have My Attention: Hand Hygiene & Food Safety Education for Everyone, March 9-12, 2021 at our Consumer Food Safety Education Virtual Conference. Please plan to join us for this event.

We remain in the middle of a global pandemic, and everyone should heed the CDC’s guidance related to fall and winter holiday celebrations. This year’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s seasons will likely have a deeper meaning of family and faith, and for that, we are all grateful. It is a time for giving back and serving those who may need assistance and care. 

PFSE has established itself with a differentiated, focused approach to food and health: eliminating foodborne illness by educating consumers about safe food handling. Through the strong partnerships forged with those currently participating in the Partnership and those who we’ll engage as new partners with our broad coalition to promote food safety culture, I wish you all a safe and healthy holiday season. 

Lastly, I would like to acknowledge Publix Super Markets for allowing me the opportunity to serve the Partnership along with real food safety champions on the PFSE Board of Directors. 

Through the Partnership for Food Safety Education, we can build upon these collaborative efforts to help advance food safety and health for the families we all strive to mutually serve every day. By accelerating our prevention focus with the health of all top-of-mind, we can help bend the curve on foodborne illness.

Have a wonderful holiday season, and I look forward to seeing you in the New Year!

All the best…Michael

Michael Roberson is Director of Corporate Quality Assurance for Publix Super Markets. He was elected Chairman of the Partnership for Food Safety Education Board of Directors in September 2020.