These Farms Were Responsible For The Largest Egg Recall In History

We cook them for breakfast and use them in countless recipes. Yet, eggs are one of the most risky foods for salmonella, a type of bacteria that often causes food poisoning. Even with food safety efforts, one in every 20,000 eggs is contaminated with the bacteria. When safety standards aren't met at egg farms, millions of eggs can be tainted. That's exactly what happened at Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms of Iowa, leading to the largest and one of the worst egg recalls to hit America.

This massive egg recall occurred in August 2010, affecting 380 million eggs from Wright County Egg and more than 170 million eggs from Hillandale Farms. That's more than 550 million eggs potentially contaminated with salmonella, making it one of the biggest food recalls in American history. Both of the farms are located in Iowa and supply shell eggs to grocery stores and restaurants under various brands.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began investigating a possible outbreak after identifying an ongoing increase in reports of salmonella enteritidis in July 2010. Of the 29 restaurants where it tested shell eggs for contamination, 15 were supplied by Wright County Egg. Through laboratory testing, the CDC also found that the feed mill at Wright County Egg and the egg water wash in a Hillandale Farms packing facility were compromised. By December 2010, it was estimated that more than 1,900 salmonella infection cases resulted from the outbreak in multiple states.

Scandals were uncovered after the massive egg recall

The record-making egg recall wasn't the end of the issue for Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms of Iowa because the incident garnered the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice. Its investigation discovered that, through various ownerships and dealings, the farms were tied to Quality Egg LLC operations and that the company staff had been concealing its neglect of food safety standards from regulators and customers, such as Walmart, since 2006. The personnel even hid the fact that salmonella enteritidis tests came back positive on 47% of the days they tested.

In 2014, the company "pleaded guilty to one count of bribery of a public official, one count of introducing a misbranded food into interstate commerce with intent to defraud and one count of introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce," according to an Office of Public Affairs press release. On top of that, Quality Egg owner Austin "Jack" DeCoster and chief operating officer Peter DeCoster "pleaded guilty to one count of introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce."

Then, in 2015, Hillandale Farms came under fire again after video footage from an undercover Humane Society investigator showed decomposing chickens at one of its facilities in Pennsylvania. The investigator worked there for three weeks and also captured piles of broken eggs and the hens' cramped and dirty living conditions. It was this chicken farm scandal that pushed Costco to improve its egg standards.