Shoppers at grocery stores in Utah have been feeling the egg shortage affecting the United States, as the price of eggs rises and stores put limits on many cartons of eggs they can buy at a time.
Utah restaurant owners are feeling the pinch, too. One dessert shop owner told The Salt Lake Tribune she has made a menu change because of the price of eggs — while other restaurateurs say they may be forced to raise prices on certain items if egg prices don’t level out soon.
Romina Rasmussen, owner and pastry chef at the Salt Lake City chocolate shop Chez Nibs, said she has had to cut her decadent — and egg-forward — salted caramel bread pudding from the menu. It takes about 30 whole eggs, plus another 30 to 40 egg yolks, to make 36 bread puddings, she said.
At Charlie Chow’s Dragon Grill in downtown Salt Lake City, eggs are no longer offered on the do-it-yourself Mongolian grill buffet — though they are still included in menu items, such as egg drop soup.
Red Moose Cafe in Salt Lake City is offering an “egg-pocalypse” breakfast burrito that’s made with rice and beans — instead of eggs — and a choice of protein.
The Rose Establishment cafe in downtown Salt Lake City posted on Instagram that “due to the bird flu crisis, the cost of organic, humane eggs has soared. To keep things fair, we’ll adjust egg dish prices up or down as the market shifts.”
Others are taking a wait-and-see approach.
Doni Sabani, managing partner of Eggsburgh in downtown Salt Lake City, said Monday that the breakfast and lunch spot has been absorbing the added cost of eggs so far instead of raising menu prices. “But it’s something we continue to evaluate,” Sabani added.
Wendy Phelps, owner of Roots Cafe in Millcreek, said the restaurant is trying to ride out the egg shortage and “hoping it won’t last very long.”
But if the price of eggs continues to rise, Phelps said they will have “no other choice” than to raise their prices in turn. After all, she said, eggs is what they sell the most of.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Cases of eggs in storage at Fillings and Emulsions in Salt Lake City, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025.
‘Volatile’ changes
The egg shortage started with an outbreak of avian flu began in 2022, and the virus has been detected as recently as January, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. As the disease reduced the number of egg-laying hens in the United States, egg prices went up, and they are predicted to rise 20.3% this year, the department reported.
The USDA said in its weekly Egg Markets Overview from Feb. 14 that in January, the Consumer Price Index for eggs increased 15.2%, with an average price of $4.95 per dozen, up $0.81 from the month before.
At the Smith’s grocery store in Rose Park, a carton of a dozen Kroger eggs was $5.39 on Tuesday. A sign at the dairy case limited customers to buying two cartons at a time.
The Salt Lake City location of Costco on Tuesday was selling 18-count packages of eggs for $6.39, and customers were limited to buying three packs at a time.
The price of a 15-dozen box of eggs was $119.52 on Tuesday at Restaurant Depot, a national restaurant supplier that has a location in Salt Lake City.
And egg prices will “continue to experience volatile month-to-month changes,” the USDA said.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Pastry chef Mike Woods separates eggs to prep for making macarons at Fillings and Emulsions in Salt Lake City, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025.
Price changes
For the last couple of weeks, Adalberto Diaz — the co-owner, founder and executive chef of Fillings & Emulsions — said he has been “driving around town trying to find the best price of eggs, asking everybody about price to get the best possible deal everywhere we can.”
Diaz said Fillings & Emulsions is going to keep shopping around for eggs before they raise their prices.
He also said that some restaurant owners he knows are temporarily removing egg-heavy items from their menu. But Diaz said he doesn’t have that option.
Macarons, one of the bakery’s signature items, are mostly made out of egg whites. Diaz said “that would be crazy” to take macarons off the menu even temporarily, because they’re “a fundamental part of what we are.”
Rasmussen, at Chez Nibs, said she is “evaluating every single menu item and deciding whether or not it gets to stay or not.”
At Xiao Bao Bao — the Chinese bao shop Rasmussen opened with twin brothers Dwight and Derrick Yee — she raised the price of the egg tart from $3 to $4. And the coconut custard bao and empanada bao (which both contain eggs) are going to be “priced accordingly,” Rasmussen said.
The last time a vendor gave her a quote for a box of eggs, Rasmussen said, it was about $150 for a box of 15 dozen. She said she used to be able to get 15 dozen (three packs of five dozen) for about $36 total at Costco, but according to the most recent pricing information, each pack of five dozen has been $21.89 each, which is subject to change.
On Tuesday, the Salt Lake City location of Costco was sold out of the five-dozen packs; when they are in stock, shoppers are limited to purchasing three at a time.
Scott Evans, owner of Emigration Cafe in Salt Lake City’s Yalecrest neighborhood, said the cafe raised the price of eggs on the menu — but it hasn’t been enough to make up for the continued increases, he added.
Shon Foster — proprietor and executive chef at Sego Restaurant in Kanab, and Anthera and Añu in Springdale — said the price of the Zion Sunrise breakfast plate at Añu would be going from about $15 to about $19.
Since Foster and his team make all the desserts from scratch at his restaurants as well, the price of those dishes will be going up from about $8 to about $10 “for the foreseeable future,” he said.
The most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more than 159 million birds (including wild aquatic birds, commercial poultry and backyard flocks) have been infected with avian flu. CBS reported in January that more than 20 million egg-laying hens in the United States died in the last few months of 2024 because of avian flu.
