As of October 15, 2026, FDA has posted its Executive Incident Summary Abstract for the SalmonellaEnteritidis outbreak linked to Midwest Poultry Services shell eggs, which sickened 134 people in 18 states and hospitalized 34 between November 21, 2025 and August 12, 2026. No one died. CDC closed the investigation on September 3, and the recalled eggs expired in August. What is new is the explanation. The abstract, FDA’s after-action report, says what inspectors found on the company’s Texas farm: a poultry house that had tested positive for Salmonella Enteritidis during the prior flock was not cleaned and disinfected before new laying hens were added. That answers the question Marler Blog asked on July 24: what did the farm know, and when?
The Form 483 lists three Egg Rule violations, and the third is the one worth stopping on.
FDA’s Egg Safety Rule, 21 CFR Part 118, has covered large producers since July 2010. It requires testing the pullet house for Salmonella Enteritidis when the young hens are 14 to 16 weeks old (section 118.4(a)(2)(i)), testing the laying house again at 40 to 45 weeks (section 118.5(a)), cleaning and disinfecting any house that tested positive before new hens go in (section 118.4(d)), and testing the eggs, four tests of 1,000 eggs at two-week intervals, or diverting them to pasteurization once a house tests positive (section 118.6).
FDA’s inspection of Midwest Poultry Services, L.P. produced a Form 483 with three observations. First, the pullet environment was not tested at 14 to 16 weeks. Second, the poultry house environmental sampling plan did not fit the layout of the house. Third, a house that had tested positive for Salmonella Enteritidis during the life of the prior flock was not cleaned and disinfected by appropriate procedures before new laying hens were added.
The farm had a positive test. It removed the flock. It put new hens into the same house without the cleaning the rule requires. None of the three observations describes a gap in the law. The rule was written for exactly this sequence of events. It did not fail here. It was not followed.
Twenty-seven isolates were a single strain, and three farm samples matched the people who got sick.
FDA collected eight samples at the farm. Whole genome sequencing of 27 Salmonella Enteritidis isolates revealed a single strain, and three FDA environmental isolates sat zero to ten single-nucleotide polymorphisms from the isolates taken from patients, with a mean of 2.2. The bacteria in the henhouse and the bacteria in the patients were the same bug. FDA’s September 3 advisory reported the three-sample match without the numbers. The company found the strain first. FDA’s July 24 update said its samples from its Texas farms tested positive, a third-party lab matched some of them to the outbreak strain, and it shared the results with FDA on July 21. The recall of 1,589,577 dozen eggs came the next day.
Three of five traceback legs reached Midwest Poultry. Two did not.
FDA worked five cases from Texas, Colorado and Louisiana. Those five points of sale were supplied by ten distributors in Texas, Colorado and New York, and by farms in Texas, Utah, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Iowa. Three of the five legs converged at Midwest Poultry Services. FDA said on July 24 that the recalled eggs did not account for all of the illnesses; the abstract does not say whether a second source was ever found. A nine-month outbreak with a single strain and a one-month recall window leaves room for one, or for a farm that was shedding the strain long before anyone swabbed it.
The count grew by 36 after the recall, and the last person got sick three weeks after it.
What moved between FDA’s July 24 update and the September 3 close:
| Measure | July 24, 2026 | Sept. 3, 2026 | Change |
| Illnesses | 98 | 134 | +36 |
| States | 17 | 18 | +1 |
| Hospitalizations | 26 | 34 | +8 |
| Texas cases | 73 | 99 | +26 |
| Cases outside Texas | 25 | 35 | +10 |
| Interviewed who ate eggs | 40 of 44 (91%) | 46 of 54 (85%) | −6 points |
| Latest illness onset | June 30, 2026 | Aug. 12, 2026 | +43 days |
Sources: FDA advisories of July 24 and September 3, 2026; CDC outbreak page, closed September 3; FDA abstract, CARA ID 1378, posted October 15, 2026. Check: Texas +26 plus outside Texas +10 equals +36; 99 plus 35 equals 134.
The final state count: Texas 99, Louisiana 8, Arkansas 5, Arizona 4, New Mexico 3, Georgia 2, Oklahoma 2, and one each in California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, New York, South Carolina and West Virginia. Texas carried 74 percent of the outbreak, which fits a recall sold through Kroger and Brookshire Grocery stores in Texas and five nearby states.
The recalled eggs are past expiration, but check the carton code if one is still in your refrigerator.
The recalled eggs were produced on the company’s two Texas farms between June 6 and July 3, 2026, and sold under the Kroger, Simple Truth, Brookshire’s, Country Morning and Sunups labels and in bulk, with plant code P-1950 or 0840962 and a Julian date of 157 through 184 printed on the side of the carton, and best-by dates from July 20 to August 17, 2026. FDA’s recall notice now says the recall has been completed and terminated. If a carton with those codes is still in your refrigerator, throw it out and wash the shelf.
Salmonella symptoms begin six hours to six days after exposure and last four to seven days.
Salmonella causes diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps, typically within 12 to 72 hours of eating contaminated food and as late as six days. Most people recover without treatment in four to seven days. Some need hospital care for dehydration, and in a few the infection spreads to the bloodstream. CDC’s sequencing of this strain predicted it would not respond to ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic doctors often choose when treatment is needed. See a doctor for a fever above 102 degrees, diarrhea lasting more than three days, bloody stools, or vomiting that keeps you from holding down liquids, and ask for a stool culture; it is the only way to confirm Salmonellaand the only way your case gets counted.
The abstract does not say when the positive test was taken or how long the new flock laid eggs.
It does not say when the positive environmental test in the prior flock was taken, how long the new flock laid eggs before the recall, or how many houses were involved. It does not say whether the two traceback legs that missed Midwest Poultry were resolved, or whether FDA issued a warning letter; none has been posted. And it does not say how a producer covered by the rule since 2010 missed the pullet test, the sampling plan and the cleaning in the same operation.
Marler Blog made the same point on August 5 about a South Carolina farm that tested positive in February 2001 and shipped eggs to four prisons in March, sickening 688 inmates. The test result almost always exists before the first person gets sick. The abstract puts Midwest Poultry in that column. It is the first time the government has said in writing what was wrong at the farm. It took nearly three months after the recall. It should be the standard, not the exception.
What caused the Midwest Poultry egg Salmonella outbreak?
FDA’s October 15, 2026 summary says a laying house at Midwest Poultry Services in Texas tested positive for Salmonella Enteritidis during the prior flock and was not cleaned and disinfected before new hens were added. Three farm samples matched the outbreak strain by whole genome sequencing.
Are the recalled Midwest Poultry eggs still in stores?
No. The recalled eggs, plant codes P-1950 and 0840962 with Julian dates 157 to 184, carried best-by dates of July 20 through August 17, 2026, and FDA has terminated the recall.
How many people got sick from Midwest Poultry eggs?
134 people in 18 states, 34 of them hospitalized, with no deaths, and onsets from November 21, 2025 to August 12, 2026. Texas had 99 of the 134. CDC closed the investigation September 3, 2026; FDA posted its summary October 15, 2026.
Marler Clark has been investigating this outbreak since July and reported the September 3 close when CDC announced it. Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, has represented thousands of victims of Salmonellaand other foodborne illness outbreaks and has recovered over $850 million for clients. If you or a family member became ill with a Salmonella infection after consuming food and you are interested in pursuing a legal claim, contact the Marler Clark Salmonella attorneys for a free case evaluation at 1-800-884-9840.
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