In 2025, restaurants are facing another unexpected challenge as a fatal strain of Avian Influenza (HPAI) or Bird Flu continues to cause a spike in egg prices. A cornerstone ingredient in many menu items, from breakfast specials to desserts, eggs play a major role in kitchen operations.
With costs for the staple surging by 30%, this situation is impacting every aspect of food service, from menu diversity and pricing strategies to profit margins and customer satisfaction.
What is Avian Influenza (HPAI) or Bird Flu?
A major threat to the poultry industry, animal health, and the US economy, bird flu, or highly pathogenic avian influenza, is a contagious viral disease affecting domestic and wild birds.
Birds Lost to Bird Flu in 2025 So Far
Conventional caged eggs: 17,305,550 birds lost; a 74% share
Cage-free eggs: 6,141,050 bird lost; a 26% share
Organic eggs: 26,100 bird lost; a 0.1% share
Total birds lost in 2025 so far: 23,472,700
Why Egg Prices Are So High
The rise in egg prices can be attributed to a combination of factors that have converged to create a perfectly volatile storm for the food industry. As inflation continues to cause rising prices in the overall food supply, widespread cases of avian flu are causing poultry farms to downsize their supply considerably to contain the outbreak, causing egg shortages nationwide and prices to rise quickly and significantly.
And restaurants are feeling the pressure.
How Egg Prices Impact Restaurants
Eggs are used in a variety of dishes, so even a modest increase in cost can add up quickly. Restaurants may have to make difficult decisions between removing egg-related items from the menu, absorbing the cost and working with diminished profits, or raising prices, risking a decline in customer satisfaction.
Regardless of the direction a restaurant takes, this challenge is yet another lesson in flexibility for operators. And as the last five years have shown those in the food game, it’s those who are the most flexible, adaptive, and adept at overcoming challenges that succeed.
Proactive Strategies to Manage Rising Egg Prices
To meet the moment, the following proactive strategies can help restaurants manage increased egg costs.
Menu Adjustments
Adjust Recipes: Modify menu items that rely heavily on eggs by reducing the amount used in dishes, such as in baked goods, sauces, or omelets.
Plant-Based Options: Introduce or highlight eggless menu options to reduce dependency on eggs. Market these dishes as healthy, protein-packed breakfast options that are not only vegan and sustainable, but also more budget-friendly.
Examples:
Vegan Tofu Scramble: Replace traditional scrambled eggs with a vegan tofu scramble. When seasoned and cooked properly, tofu can mimic the texture and flavor of scrambled eggs, making it an excellent plant-based substitute.
Chickpea Flour Pancakes: Commonly used in plant-based cooking, chickpea flour (besan) provides a hearty texture. Use chickpea flour to create savory or sweet pancakes, which are naturally egg-free. For savory versions, include spinach, tomatoes, or spices; for sweet pancakes, add berries and bananas.
Focus on High-Demand Dishes: Consider focusing on using eggs primarily in high-demand items, while cutting back on less popular egg dishes.
Sourcing Alternatives
Buy in Bulk: Purchase eggs in larger quantities or through wholesale suppliers to secure better pricing.
Shop Locally: Work with local egg producers who may offer more competitive pricing or greater flexibility.
Ugly Fruits and Veggies: Savvy chefs have long found creative ways to integrate #2 produce into their menus. Creating soups, juices, stews, and sauces with cast-offs and scraps is a cost-effective and sustainable way to salvage otherwise unusable produce.
Leverage frozen products: Exploring the use of frozen egg products as a cost-effective alternative to fresh eggs can help mitigate the impact of rising prices.
Ingredient Substitution
Explore Substitutes: Use alternative ingredients like aquafaba, flaxseed meal, or tofu in dishes to replace eggs where possible.
Baked Goods: For items like cakes, muffins, or cookies, use egg substitutes such as applesauce, banana puree, or commercial egg replacers.
Egg-Based Sauces: Use powdered egg substitutes for sauces like hollandaise or béarnaise to control costs.
Waste Management
Recycle: Reducing waste is a critical strategy to keep restaurant monthly expenses down. Upping your recycling game can not only reduce waste disposal costs but can have a significant impact on your bottom line.
Upcycle: Creative upcycling of leftover ingredients, such as using leftover chicken in soups, stews, or salads, can also help.
Conduct a Waste Audit: Conducting a thorough waste audit is critical to help you gain a better understanding of where your business is in terms of waste management because you can’t manage what you don’t measure. A waste audit will also help you identify problems and spot areas that need improvement.
Analyze Data: Carefully analyzing historical data to optimize ingredient orders can minimize waste and reduce costs.
Train staff: Training staff on proper inventory management techniques and the importance of minimizing waste is essential.
Review Menu Pricing
Review Pricing Strategy: A restaurant's competitiveness and profitability are maintained by regularly reviewing food costs, monitoring sales trends, and making gradual price changes. As egg prices fluctuate, a solid pricing strategy will allow for adjustments without hurting sales or customer trust.
Monitor Demand: If you consider raising the price of certain dishes where eggs are a significant ingredient, ensure the increase is in line with customer demand.
Portion Control
Standardize Portions: Control the amount of eggs used per dish by ensuring consistency in portion sizes.
Offer Smaller Portions: Provide customers with the option of smaller portions or scaled-down versions of egg-heavy dishes.
Monitor Trends and Adapt
Stay Informed: Keep up with trends in the food industry and consider customer preferences for sustainable and alternative ingredients. Flexibility can allow you to quickly adapt to supply chain changes or new demand patterns.
Sustainability Focus: If high egg prices are tied to supply issues, highlighting a commitment to sustainability and supporting local farms could resonate well with customers.
When Will Egg Prices Go Down?
Though it’s difficult to predict the dynamics of commodity prices with absolute certainty, industry data from the United States Department of Agriculture indicates that egg prices may begin to stabilize by the third quarter of 2025.
This prediction, however, is dependent on how the U.S. contains the bird flu outbreak. If progress isn’t made quickly, egg prices will remain elevated.
Take Away
While there’s no simple fix for cracking down on rising egg prices, adopting proactive and creative strategies and remaining flexible are crucial to staying resilient and thriving in turbulent times.
By embracing menu innovation, optimizing inventory, and making thoughtful price adjustments, restaurants can successfully navigate these challenging times without sacrificing quality, alienating customers, or losing profits.
By Eileen Strauss
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