Florida food banks in all 67 counties are receiving 5.67 million Grade A eggs under a multistate antitrust settlement resolving allegations of egg market price manipulation.
The distribution marks Florida’s share of a nationwide resolution involving the U.S. Department of Justice and a bipartisan coalition of 17 state attorneys general. Under the agreement, egg producers will donate a total of 53 million Grade A large eggs to food banks across the participating states and pay a collective $3.3 million.
Florida’s portion equals 472,500 dozen eggs, delivered via 21 semi-truckloads. Cal-Maine Foods, Inc., which operates facilities in Florida, is supplying the state’s allocation and covering all storage, freight, shipping, and handling expenses. The state will also receive $348,490 to fund future antitrust enforcement and consumer protection efforts.
The legal action originated from a joint investigation into whether daily market price benchmarks published by Urner Barry were manipulated by commercial producers. Because most conventional egg contracts nationwide rely on Urner Barry indices, artificial increases in the benchmark directly drove up consumer prices at retail grocery counters.
Florida joined the inquiry in December 2025, and the formal complaint was filed on June 30, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa under United States et al. v. Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. et al.
“Eggs are a breakfast staple, not a luxury,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said. “When the price of a carton goes up, working families feel it every week at the checkout line. Today 5.67 million eggs are moving to food banks and pantries in every Florida county—at no cost to households, food banks, or taxpayers. That is affordability you can measure.”
Distribution across Florida is being managed by Feeding Florida’s network of nine regional food banks and more than 2,400 local partner agencies. Shipments began arriving in late July and are finishing this week.
“By the end of today, all nine of our Feeding Florida food banks will have received their entire allocation of the 5.7 million eggs,” said Robin Safley, CEO of Feeding Florida. “They have been delivering the eggs into communities through our vast network since the beginning of August. When organizations across Florida work together, we can take opportunities like this one and move them through the right channels to make a real difference in the lives of the people we serve.”
Regional deliveries across Florida include:
- Feeding South Florida: 5 truckloads serving Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach counties.
- Feeding Tampa Bay: 4 truckloads serving Citrus, Hardee, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, and Sumter counties.
- Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida: 4 truckloads serving Brevard, Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, and Volusia counties.
- Second Harvest of the Big Bend: 2 truckloads serving Calhoun, Columbia, Dixie, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Hamilton, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Suwannee, Taylor, and Wakulla counties.
- Feeding Northeast Florida: 2 truckloads serving Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Duval, Flagler, Gilchrist, Levy, Nassau, Putnam, St. Johns, and Union counties.
- All Faiths Food Bank: 1 truckload serving DeSoto and Sarasota counties.
- Feeding the Gulf Coast: 1 truckload serving Bay, Escambia, Holmes, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Walton, and Washington counties.
- Harry Chapin Food Bank: 1 truckload serving Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry, and Lee counties.
- Treasure Coast Food Bank: 1 truckload serving Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, and St. Lucie counties.
Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson and the Farmers Feeding Florida program partnered in coordinating the relief effort.
“It’s an honor to partner with Feeding Florida and our food banks to provide healthy farm-grown products to Floridians,” Simpson said. “Having that existing structure in place helps us to get these eggs from the settlement into the hands of those who need them most. I thank Attorney General Uthmeier for his work on this issue and for allowing us to be a part of it.”
Beyond the product donations, the settlement imposes five years of operational compliance mandates on the settling producers. Companies must ensure all bidding and trading decisions reflect verified commercial needs, appoint internal antitrust compliance officers, and submit to ongoing government record inspections and personnel interviews.
Florida joined the Department of Justice alongside attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
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Article Source: Florida Cracks Down On Egg Prices: 5.6 Million Free Eggs Headed To Local Food Banks – Tampa Free Press