Utah Food Bank receives first shipment of 1.5 million eggs secured through multistate settlement

SALT LAKE CITY — How would you like your eggs?

Hopefully by the truckload, as the Utah Food Bank on Monday received its first shipment of the 1,512,000 eggs the state secured through a price-fixing settlement reached in July.

Utah was joined by the U.S. Department of Justice and over a dozen other states in filing a civil antitrust lawsuit accusing Cal-Maine Foods Inc., Versova Holdings and Hickman's Family Farms of conspiring to manipulate benchmark egg prices and drive up the cost consumers paid for eggs nationwide.

The federal and state lawsuit alleged that from June 2022 to March 2025, the companies violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act, which prohibits agreements that restrain trade and competition, by working together to artificially inflate the daily egg price benchmark published by Urner Barry, a market reporting service whose prices are used by egg producers and grocery stores.

Doing so drove up grocery store costs for Utah consumers, the state said.

Now, instead of taking the settlement in the form of a check, Utah's share of the settlement will actually be felt by families in the state.

"Utah families paid more than they should have for eggs, all because a few companies decided to cheat rather than compete," Attorney General Derek Brown said in a statement. "I wanted our settlement to impact Utah families directly, instead of just sitting in a random government account. So that's exactly what's happening — more than a million and a half eggs are going straight to Utah kitchen tables."

Utah Food Bank will distribute the eggs across the state through its network of partner pantries and programs, "prioritizing families who count on food assistance to get through the month," said a release from the attorney general's office.

Along with putting food on the table of Utah families, the settlement bars Cal-Maine, Versova and Hickman's from communicating with competitors about bids, agreeing on prices or supply, or influencing how competitors bid. Additionally, each company will be mandated to file annual compliance certifications.

"Food is at its most meaningful when it reaches people who need it most, and these eggs will do exactly that for the approximately 533,000 Utahns experiencing food insecurity," Ginette Bott, the president and CEO of Utah Food Bank, said in a statement. "We're grateful for the opportunity to be able to distribute such a highly nutritious and in-demand staple throughout the state via our network of 360 partner agencies."

In total, the egg producers agreed to donate 53 million eggs to various food banks throughout the U.S., in addition to paying millions in fines.

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