Utah Food Bank to receive more than 1.5 million eggs through Utah Attorney General’s price-fixing lawsuit

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — The first shipment of the 1,512,000 eggs that Utah secured through a price-fixing settlement arrived at the Utah Food Bank today, Attorney General Derek Brown announced. 

The eggs come from a price-fixing case Utah brought against three major egg producers: Cal-Maine Foods, Inc., Versova Holdings, and Hickman’s Family Farms. According to the complaint, the companies illegally coordinated to inflate the daily price quotes that set what shoppers pay for eggs, regularly trading pricing plans and bidding strategies with one another instead of competing. Utah alleged that conduct violated the Sherman Act’s ban on price fixing, driving up costs at the checkout line for Utah families. 

Rather than a check that disappears into a budget line, Utah’s share of the settlement arrived as something families could use immediately: eggs, by the truckload.  

“Utah families paid more than they should have for eggs, all because a few companies decided to cheat rather than compete,” said Attorney General Brown. “I wanted our settlement to impact Utah families directly, instead of just sitting in a random government account. So that’s exactly what’s happening — more than a million and a half eggs are going straight to Utah kitchen tables.” 

Utah Food Bank is distributing the eggs through its statewide network of partner pantries and programs, prioritizing families who count on food assistance to get through the month. For many households, eggs are one of the most requested and most expensive staples, making the donation an unusually practical form of relief. 

“Food is at its most meaningful when it reaches people who need it most, and these eggs will do exactly that for the approximately 533,000 Utahns experiencing food insecurity,” said Ginette Bott, Utah Food Bank President and CEO. “We’re grateful for the opportunity to be able to distribute such a highly nutritious and in-demand staple throughout the state via our network of 360 partner agencies.” 

The settlement also bars Cal-Maine, Versova, and Hickman’s for five years from communicating with competitors about bids, agreeing on prices or supply, or influencing how competitors bid, and each must file annual compliance certifications under penalty of perjury.