We Don't Have Enough Eggs for McD's Menu Change

Prices were already at an all-time high
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 3, 2015 5:44 AM CDT
America Doesn't Have Enough Eggs for McD's Menu Change
A McDonald's restaurant in El Cerrito, Calif.   (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Starting next month, McDonald's customers will be able to munch Egg McMuffins all day long—until the eggs run out. Bird flu has killed off tens of millions of laying hens this year, driving egg prices to an all-time high and creating a shortage that will only be worsened by McDonald's shift to all-day breakfast, Bloomberg reports. The shortage, which has caused substitutions like Panda Express' switch from egg to corn in its fried rice, had been easing slightly of late but the McDonald's effect on the market is likely to reverse the trend just as major buyers are stocking up on eggs and egg products for the holidays, Bloomberg notes. The crisis has caused the US to start buying eggs in Europe for the first time in a decade.

Consumers had long asked for all-day breakfasts, but egg buyers aren't the only ones dismayed by the move. In a tongue-in-cheek column at the Chicago Tribune, Rex Huppke labels the change an "abomination" to traditionalists like himself. He quotes Exodus 16:12—"I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, 'At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread'"—and suggests like-minded McDonald's workers follow the example of Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis and refuse to serve Egg McMuffins outside the "traditional breakfast hours" of 5am to 10:30am. (More McDonald's stories.)

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