Oregon State University Extension Service
Oregon Farm Direct Marketing:
Selling Eggs
A Guide for Farmers and Market Managers
Sara Runkel, Heidi Noordijk, Melissa Fery, Rebecca Landis and Sarah Schwab
Oregon's Farm Direct Marketing law exempts producers who sell agricultural
products that they themselves grow from state licensing.
Do you produce and sell eggs directly to consumers? If so, there are specific
labeling and handling requirements that you need to follow to qualify for the
farm-direct licensing exemption and stay legal.
This publication outlines these requirements and provides guidance on how
to sell high-quality eggs to your customers. It is important to remember that
although you may qualify for a license exemption, you are not exempt from
following food safety guidelines.
Your business does not qualify for the farm-direct exemption and you will
need an egg handler’s license if you are:
Selling eggs to wholesale accounts such as restaurants, retailers, cafes,
bakeries, hospitals, schools, boarding houses or institutions.
•
Selling eggs that you did not produce.•
To obtain an egg handler license, contact the Oregon Department of
Agriculture Food Safety Division
(https://www.oregon.gov/ODA/programs/FoodSafety/FSLicensing/Pages/Eggs.aspx)
through its website
(https://www.oregon.gov/ODA/programs/FoodSafety/FSLicensing/Pages/Eggs.aspx) or
call 503-986-4720.
CONTENTS
Labeling requirements•
Use-by and sell-by dates•
Cartons•
Cleaning and refrigeration•
Maintaining food safety and egg
quality
•
Questions•
Resources•
Labeling requirements
You must label your egg cartons with the following information:
Your farm or personal name and farm address.•
Product identity (chicken eggs, duck eggs, etc.).•
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EM 9350 | June 2022
View online: https://extension.oregonstate.edu/pub/em-9350
Net contents (for example, one dozen ungraded eggs or one dozen large AA eggs). Note that farm-direct eggs may
be sold ungraded. To sell eggs with size and grade (such as large AA), you must follow the protocol listed in
Oregon Egg Standards (https://secure.sos.state.or.us/oard/displayDivisionRules.action?selectedDivision=2711).
•
Egg carton labels must contain required information.
Please note that eggs must be AA or A grade to be labeled as “fresh eggs,”
“farm eggs” or “ranch eggs.”
Safe handling instructions must appear prominently on the outer carton or
inside lid and must be no less than one-sixteenth inch in height. In an
outlined text box, “SAFE HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS” must appear in
boldface type along with the statement “To prevent illness from bacteria:
keep eggs refrigerated, cook eggs until yolks are firm, and cook foods
containing eggs thoroughly.” If the statement is placed inside the lid, the
words “keep refrigerated” must appear on the outer carton. See sample
label.
•
The following statements must also appear on the label in all-capital
boldface type, no less than one-eighth inch in height:
•
“THIS PRODUCT IS NOT PREPARED IN AN INSPECTED FOOD
ESTABLISHMENT.”
•
“NOT FOR RESALE.”•
Laying hens on a pasture.
Credit: Heidi Noordijk, © Oregon State University
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Many farmers choose to display one carton of eggs while keeping the
others refrigerated.
Credit: Heidi Noordijk © Oregon State University
Use-by and sell-by dates
State law requires eggs to have either “use by” or “sell by” dates clearly
visible to consumers. The USDA recommends that the sell-by date be no
more than 30 days after production and the use-by date be no more than 45
days after production. Producers selling directly to consumers typically use a
use-by date, which indicates the maximum time period consumers can
expect eggs to maintain quality when properly stored. The date can be
handwritten or stamped. Date stamps can be purchased from a variety of
sources.
Cartons
If you package your eggs in previously used cartons, all identifying
information from the previous seller must be removed or defaced.
This includes the brand, trademark, officially designated number of another
egg handler and the use-by or sell-by date.
If you use recycled cartons, make sure they are clean and stored in a sanitary
environment between uses. The use of new cartons is encouraged. Cartons
can be purchased in bulk to save you time and money.
Eggs used for display that are not
kept at or below 45°F cannot be
sold. One option is to display
empty cartons.
Credit: Rebecca Landis © Oregon State University
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Cleaning and refrigeration
Wash hands thoroughly while handling eggs. Keep nest boxes clean and
collect eggs at least once per day. Collect eggs twice a day to reduce the
chance of dirty and broken eggs. Ensure eggs are cleaned and refrigerated
soon after collection. This helps limit the chance of contamination and loss of
interior quality.
Egg must be visibly clean. Some eggs may not need to be cleaned at all, but if
they are not visibly clean, they can be dry cleaned or wet washed, sanitized
and dried.
You may use fine sandpaper to remove stains and dirt from dry shells.
If you are washing eggs, the water must be 20°F higher than the temperature
of the egg being washed. Examples of washing include using spray bottles or
briefly rinsing the eggs under running water. Following washing, eggs must
be spray-rinsed using an approved sanitizer and dried.
Eggs must remain refrigerated and dry after cleaning and until they are sold.
Coolers with ice packs are an acceptable form of refrigeration during
transportation and selling of eggs if you can maintain a temperature at or
below 45°F. We suggest using a thermometer for monitoring.
All eggs must be:
Kept at or below 45°F promptly after gathering.•
Refrigerated during transportation.•
Refrigerated and stored at or below 45°F at the point of sale, including:
Farmers markets.•
CSA pick-up sites.•
Farm stands.•
•
Eggs used for display that are not kept at or below 45°F cannot be sold.
WAIT!
Do I need to refrigerate my eggs at the farmers market if I collected them
that morning?
YES! All eggs must be refrigerated at the point of sale.
A homemade wooden cooler stores
eggs for sale on a front porch.
Credit: Heidi Noordijk © Oregon State University
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Maintaining food safety and egg quality
Preventing temperature fluctuation is critical to food safety. Never cool eggs rapidly before they are cleaned. The egg
contents may contract and pull bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella from the surface into the shell pores.
Before washing eggs, allow them to reach room temperature (about 70°F). Try to keep the temperature relatively constant
until they are washed. Before refrigeration, wash eggs with potable water that is 20°F warmer than the eggs. Washing with
cold water may also cause the contents to contract, drawing surface bacteria into the shell.
After eggs are refrigerated, they need to stay at or below 45
o
F. A cold egg left out at room temperature can condense water
on the shell (sweat), facilitating the movement of bacteria into the egg and increasing the growth of bacteria.
Eggs that are cracked or inedible should not be sold.
Farm-direct sales require a process known as candling. Candling helps determine the interior quality of shell eggs using
bright light. Commercial candling lights are available, or you can use a high-intensity flashlight in a darkened room. Candling
can reveal air cell depth; yolk and albumen condition; white and egg yolk quality; and blood or meat spots. Eggs showing
blood rings, eggs containing embryo chicks (at or beyond blood ring state) and other examples of inedible eggs as defined by
the Oregon egg standards
(https://secure.sos.state.or.us/oard/viewSingleRule.action;JSESSIONID_OARD=P9FpiKc5mkoBro1AHYyLhsmSjoLVnRgiX3eOOBPcQCiB5zF8ca6-
!601336136?ruleVrsnRsn=155541) are not allowed to be sold.
You can use an LED
flashlight to candle eggs.
Credit: Melissa Fery, © Oregon State
University
Candling the egg will
determine if the egg is
edible and salable.
Credit: Melissa Fery, © Oregon State
University
Do not sell eggs with
large meat spots, as
shown.
Credit: Diane Wavra, Meadow Grove
Eggs
A blood ring circles the
end of this egg. Do not sell
eggs with blood rings.
Credit: Calvin DeVries, University of
Nebraska-Lincoln
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Questions?
Contact your local Oregon Department of Agriculture inspector. To find an inspector, search for a food safety
specialist (http://oda.state.or.us/dbs/sanitarian_list/search.lasso) by ZIP code.
Oregon State University Extension Service has knowledgeable staff across the state. You can easily submit a
question to Ask Extension (https://ask2.extension.org/).
Resources
Oregon egg standards, OAR 603 (https://secure.sos.state.or.us/oard/displayDivisionRules.action?selectedDivision=2711),
provide the state requirements to handling and selling eggs.
Oregon’s Farm Direct Marketing law allows for licensing exemptions for some locally grown, raised and processed
products. See Oregon Department of Agriculture’s publication “Farm Direct Marketing, Agricultural Products”
(http://www.oregon.gov/ODA/shared/Documents/Publications/FoodSafety/FarmDirectMarketingAgProducts.pdf) ? for more
information.
The USDA publication “Shell Eggs from Farm to Table (https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-
preparation/eggs/shell-eggs-farm-table)” provides more information about safe food handling
Sanitizing eggs after washing is required in Oregon. See ATTRA’s FAQ on How Should I Sanitize My Farm Fresh
Eggs (https://attra.ncat.org/how-should-i-sanitize-fresh-farm-eggs/) for details.
Washing and refrigerating eggs is required if you are selling them in the United States. This article
(https://uwmadscience.news.wisc.edu/animals/most-of-the-world-does-not-refrigerate-their-eggs-so-why-does-the-us/) from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison provides details about those rules.
About the authors
Sara Runkel (https://extension.oregonstate.edu/people/sara-
runkel)
Horticulture & Small Farms (Former)
Heidi Noordijk (https://extension.oregonstate.edu/people/heidi-
noordijk)
Small Farms Coordinator
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Melissa Fery (https://extension.oregonstate.edu/people/melissa-
fery)
Small Farms
Rebecca Landis
Market Director
Corvallis-Albany Farmers' Markets, Corvallis, Oregon
Sarah Schwab
Operations and Automation Specialist
Oregon Department of Agriculture, Food Safety Division
© 2022 Oregon State University. Extension work is a cooperative program of Oregon State University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and
Oregon counties. Oregon State University Extension Service offers educational programs, activities, and materials without discrimination on the
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retaliation for prior civil rights activity. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.)
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[email protected] or 1-800-561-6719.
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