Without a doubt it's an egg drought

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Ty-Rico Lea
  • 325th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  With the recent cases of chickens diagnosed with the avian flu, companies across the United States have called for the temporary reduction of egg sales.

The Air Force as well as its sister branches are also affected by this; to include dining facilities, Commissaries, Non-Appropriated Funds food operations and other military food service operations.

Airmen and other customers of the Berg-Liles dining facility can expect to see changes made to dining facility menus.

Some changes to the sale of eggs include:

· Customers being limited to only one egg entrée per meal, two fried eggs, one omelet, one portion of scrambled eggs, breakfast sandwich and etc.
· Eliminating the use of eggs for all pre-made Chef Salads for Grab-and-Go meals
· Limiting the French Toast option to twice weekly, Tuesdays and Thursdays
· Discontinuing hot breakfast specials that contain eggs
· Offering only hot hard boiled eggs or cold hard boiled eggs for Grab-and-Go meals, but not both
· Limiting use of eggs on salad bar to twice weekly
· Replace in-house breaded items using egg wash with buttermilk or yogurt in place of the egg wash
· Items that require a binder such as meatballs and meatloaf will use alternative binders like rice or oats
· Using fresh shell eggs only for all breakfast sandwiches

Changes in military food service operations began July 1.

The Defense Logistics Agency announced the shortage is estimated to be in effect for the next 14 to 18 months. The DLA expects these changes will help prevent dining facilities from depleting egg supplies within the projected timeframe.

As a result of the egg dilemma, prices of eggs and egg related meals will see an increase.

Air Force Services Agency is determining the price adjustment for egg meals. It's approximated the prices will increase 123% for shelled eggs and 93% for liquid eggs. To weigh the cost, the Air Force Services Agency's Air Force Food and Beverage Branch will work to review all recipes for egg dishes in the future.

According to the www.fda.gov, the avian influenza is a virus that infects domestic poultry such as chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese. The website also mentions avian Influenza is not transmissible by eating poultry or eggs that have been properly prepared. However, humans are capable of contracting the virus but only in extreme cases.