Egg Farmers Have Adopted New FDA Egg Safety Regulations to Reduce Salmonella

ALPHARETTA, Ga.--(Business Wire)--
America`s egg farmers, who have been continually working to enhance food safety,
are committed to working with the Food and Drug Administration to ensure the egg
safety regulations are implemented and the gains in food safety the industry has
worked hard for are maintained.

"Egg farmers have practiced the requirements of the new regulations for many
years now and have achieved significant success in food safety for our
customers," said Gene Gregory, president of United Egg Producers.

As a result of the industry`s proactive efforts, consumers have benefited from
reduced rates of Salmonella Enteritidis and other food safety concerns. The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have documented reductions in
Salmonellosis in states where producers have put egg production safety practices
into effect. The programs currently used by egg farmers are designed around food
safety and consumer health much in the same way the FDA`s new program has been
developed.

FDA started in 1999 on egg production safety regulations to address concerns
with Salmonella Enteritidis in eggs. In the 10 years leading up to these newly
announced regulations, egg producers continued to improve egg safety through
preventative measures in housing and storage while they waited for the final
Federal rule. During the FDA`s development process, United Egg Producers made
suggestions to improve the original proposal for egg safety regulations and
while many guidelines were adapted, some suggestions that the industry still
considers important were not accepted.

"Although many important guidelines that we submitted to FDA were not
considered, we will carefully study the entire final rule and work with FDA to
make sure it is implemented in a way that is fair to producers and advances food
safety for consumers," said Gregory.

Egg producers are confident the program will further reduce illness associated
from contaminated eggs and note that it is important to understand the estimates
of reduced illnesses published by FDA are based on statistical extrapolations
used to estimate the total number of illnesses and not on a count of illnesses
that have actually occurred in the recent past.

For more information on the egg industry and egg safety, visit
www.uepcertified.com or www.incredibleegg.org.

About the United Egg Producers (UEP)

United Egg Producers (UEP) is the nation`s leading farmer cooperative for U.S.
egg farmers, representing 97 percent of U.S. egg farmers and whose independent
members produce about 98% of all the eggs sold in the United States.UEP is a
leader in forward-looking environmental, food safety and animal welfare
activities.UEP is located in Alpharetta, GA.Please visit us at www.unitedegg.org
for more information.

United Egg Producers (UEP)
Robin Baber, 404-367-2764

Copyright Business Wire 2009