Check your fridge: Nearly 19 million eggs are under the FDA’s most serious recall classification

Egg prices have finally stopped punishing American shoppers.

A dozen averaged $2.19 in July, down nearly 26% from a year earlier as flocks recovered from avian flu.

Now nearly 19 million eggs are carrying a different kind of problem—and the sell-by dates on some of them run through today.

The problem began in July, when Midwest Poultry Services voluntarily recalled white shell and brown cage-free eggs over potential salmonella enteritidis contamination.

The eggs were produced at farms in Texas between June 6 and July 3 and carry sell-by or best-by dates between July 20 and Aug.

17.

They were sold under the Kroger , Simple Truth, Brookshire’s, Country Morning and Cal-Maine Sunups brands.

Then on Aug.

12, the Food and Drug Administration classified the recall under its highest-risk category after the eggs were linked to a salmonella outbreak that sickened at least 98 people and hospitalized 26.

The FDA said the Class I designation followed its assessment of the risk to the public and “should not be seen as an expansion or change to a firm’s voluntary public warning.” Midwest Poultry Services could not immediately be reached for comment.

Emily Metz, president and CEO of the American Egg Board, previously stressed that the classification does not represent a new recall.

“What you’re seeing in the news today is not a new recall,” s he said in a statement provided to the New York Times , adding that the company’s voluntary recall “is already complete.” Consumers bought them at Kroger stores in Texas and Louisiana and Brookshire Grocery stores in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Mississippi, along with smaller retail outlets, according to the FDA.

Kroger said in July that “all eggs currently available for purchase in our stores were sourced from a different production facility,” according to Reuters .

The outbreak has stretched well beyond the states where the recalled eggs were sold.