BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash. (July 26, 2026) — Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, is investigating the multistate Salmonella Enteritidis outbreak linked to shell eggs produced on two Texas farms operated by Midwest Poultry Services, L.P., and is speaking with Texas consumers who became ill after eating the recalled eggs.
The CDC has confirmed 98 illnesses across 17 states, with 26 people hospitalized. Seventy-three of those cases — nearly three of every four — are in Texas. Illness onsets run from November 21, 2025 through June 30, 2026, more than seven months before a single carton was pulled from a shelf.
Midwest Poultry Services recalled 1,589,577 dozen shell eggs on July 22 — roughly 19 million eggs — produced and distributed from its Texas farms between June 6 and July 3, 2026. The eggs went to foodservice and retail customers in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, and reached consumers at Kroger stores in Texas and Louisiana and Brookshire Grocery stores in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Mississippi, along with smaller outlets. Brands include Kroger, Simple Truth, Brookshire’s, Country Morning and Sunups. FDA says laboratory, epidemiologic and traceback data point to these eggs, and farm environmental samples matched the outbreak strain by whole genome sequencing.
Recalled cartons carry the code P-1950 or 0840962 printed on the side, with a Julian date between 157 and 184 and a best-by or sell-by date between July 20 and August 17, 2026.
“Seventy-three sick Texans is not a rounding error — it is the outbreak.”
That is how food safety attorney Bill Marler, who has represented victims of foodborne illness since the 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak, described the Texas share of the case count. “People were getting sick from these eggs in November. The recall came in July. Everything that happened in between happened to families in Texas.”
Under FDA’s Egg Safety Rule, a producer of this size swabs a laying house twice in a flock’s productive life and sees a federal inspector once every three to five years. American producers already vaccinate their layers — USDA survey data show roughly 99 percent of table-egg farms do — but nobody independently checks the work between swabs.
“We vaccinate the hens. Nobody checks the work.”
“This is the second outbreak in a row where seven months of sick people piled up before anyone pulled a carton,” Marler said. “That is not a story about a bad actor. It is a story about the interval between inspections.”
Marler noted that Midwest Poultry has said its own monitoring identified the problem on its Texas farms. “Ninety-eight people got there first,” he said.
Texans who have the recalled eggs should not eat them. Return them to the store for a refund and wash and sanitize any surface they touched. Symptoms of Salmonella infection include fever, diarrhea that may be bloody, nausea, vomiting and abdominal cramps, generally beginning six hours to six days after exposure. Infections can be severe in infants, adults over 65 and anyone with a weakened immune system, and in rare cases the bacteria enter the bloodstream and cause infected aneurysms, endocarditis or reactive arthritis. Anyone who has been ill should see a physician and ask for a stool culture — a confirmed culture is what links an individual illness to an outbreak.
About Marler Clark
Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, is the nation’s leading law firm representing victims of foodborne illness. The firm has represented thousands of individuals in Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, Campylobacter, hepatitis A and Cyclospora outbreaks, recovering over $900 million for clients, and has handled cases arising from nearly every major shell egg Salmonella outbreak in the last two decades.
Media Contact
Bill Marler, Managing Partner
Marler Clark, Inc., PS
180 Olympic Drive S.E., Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
1-800-884-9840 | bmarler@marlerclark.com