WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration is planning to inspect all of the country’s largest egg farms before the end of next year following the massive recall of tainted eggs linked to a salmonella outbreak.
An Obama administration official says inspectors will visit about 600 large egg farms that produce 80 percent of the nation’s eggs. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been announced. This will be the first government effort to inspect large egg farms, as most of them have gone largely uninspected for decades.
The FDA’s plan for heightened inspections came after more than half a billion eggs linked to cases of salmonella poisoning were recalled from two Iowa farms this month.
The inspections will begin in September with the farms deemed highest-risk to consumer safety, the official said. The new inspection plan covers all egg farms that have 50,000 or more hens.
The FDA said it has not inspected Iowa’s Wright County Egg or Hillandale Farms, the two farms linked to the salmonella outbreak, despite at least one of the companies’ long history of health, safety, environmental and immigration violations.
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