Minnesota food shelves can now receive donations of eggs that are past the “best by” or “sell by” date stamped on the carton, providing those in need with greater quantities of a nutritious source of protein while potentially keeping millions of eggs that are still good to eat out of landfills.
A new law that went into effect on Aug. 1 allows grocers and other food retailers in the state to donate eggs up to 30 days past their quality assurance date, as long as they’re kept continuously refrigerated and in their original packaging.
Before the new law went into effect, retailers were forced to throw away eggs once they reached that “best if used by” or “sell by” quality assurance date.
The egg carton now must be marked with the name of the food assistance program distributing the eggs, and a distribution date no more than 30 days after the sell by date and with the label: “Donated Eggs—Not for Resale.”
Second Harvest Heartland, the state’s largest food bank, advocated for the bill and worked with State Sen. Torrey Westrom, R-Alexandria, and Republican lead of the Senate Agriculture Committee, along with State Rep. Andrew Myers, R-Tonka Bay, and State Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, who told MPR News that eggs are one of the food items “that people want the most.”
“So this is going to help Minnesotans, and it’s free,” Maye Quade said. “It costs zero dollars for the state. It’s going to cost zero dollars for Minnesotans, and it’s going to [mean] no more food waste for some of these retailers. So, it’s a really good law, and I’m very excited about it.”
Eggs have been in high demand since the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased the number of Minnesotans who relied on food shelves, and most recently when last year’s avian influenza outbreak caused egg prices to soar.
Deisy De Leon Esqueda, manager of the ECHO food shelf in Mankato, says eggs have long been one of the food items that families most frequently request.
“We did have to decrease how much they were receiving when egg prices skyrocketed,” Esqueda said. “But we felt it was important for families to be able to receive this additional protein for their family.”
But food shelves like ECHO struggled to meet that surging demand for eggs because they couldn’t accept eggs after the quality assurance date stamped on the carton. Even though eggs are still good and good for you long after that “sell by” or “best if used by” date, it was illegal in Minnesota for grocers and other food retailers to donate the product to food shelves, so they’d have to throw them all away.
Those who work to address food insecurity saw that Minnesota law as a travesty.
“Eggs are one of the most versatile and sought-after food items we source and distribute,” said Sophie Wallerstedt, public affairs manager for Second Harvest Heartland, which is the largest distributor of food to local food shelves in Minnesota. “We have food shelves asking for eggs a lot, and we don't always have them available.”
Second Harvest is one of the organizations that pushed to change the law this spring, which the legislature did with wide bipartisan support.
“We know, and the FDA says, and the USDA says, that eggs are still safe and nutritious, pretty well past that sell-by date,” added Wallerstedt. “And so this new law that was passed this last session will now allow eggs to be donated to and distributed by Minnesota food shelves up to 30 days past that date.”
Back at the ECHO Food Shelf in Mankato, Deisy De Leon Esqueda, says she’s hoping that the recent change in state law might help make eggs more readily available for clients.
“There’s laws that go into effect that sometimes we wonder, ‘why?’ Like, ‘what is the point of it’?” Esqueda said. “But when it comes to this, it’s great. It has a positive impact on our community, and the people that are having a difficult time providing for basic necessities. So this is going to allow us as a food shelf to provide better services to them by providing this product that is still good for consumption.”
In Minnesota, eggs were the only food item that could not be donated past their “sell by” or “best if used by” date, according to Second Harvest Heartland. Items such as jarred pasta sauce, canned vegetables, boxes of cereal or pasta, that also have a “sell by” or “best by” date were and still are legally allowed to be donated to food banks and food shelves.
However, perishable products such as meat or milk, which will likely go bad after their “expires by” date, are still not allowed to be donated beyond that expiration date printed on the packaging, and will not be accepted by food shelves.
This legislation will likely increase the availability of eggs, and will help reduce the amount of food that is wasted and thrown away, said Sophie Wallerstedt of Second Harvest.
“There wasn’t really a lot of opportunity to use those eggs, and so when it comes to how this impacts food waste efforts, it keeps eggs out of landfills that are perfectly good,” Wallerstedt said, “and those eggs can then be used to help folks in the community.”