Egg prices have made headlines for over a year, dominating public and private discourse and even swaying a US presidential election. Egg price volatility impacts every link in the value chain. While consumers have expressed no shortage of shock at retail prices, many have missed an important point: commercial egg substitute ingredients have lessened the pricing impact on many products that previously relied on eggs.
That’s because manufacturers have slowly introduced cost-effective alternatives to eggs for the same reasons behind the latest egg price forecast.
Why Manufacturers Are Choosing to Replace Eggs
CPG brands were largely prepared for the egg price volatility that began in 2022. For over a decade, the confluence of regulatory changes and consumer preferences pushed formulators to create viable egg alternatives for baked goods, dressings, and other applications.
Vegan and Vegetarian Diets
North American and European consumers are embracing vegan and vegetarian diets, ushering in an era of products like plant-based meat. Even as the share of self-identified vegans and vegetarians remains somewhere between 2% and 5% of the US population, it’s growing. Women are more likely to adopt vegan, vegetarian, or flexitarian diets, increasing from 4.3% of the population to 8.7% in 2023.
Manufacturers need a vegan alternative to eggs to deliver the staple food products consumers may otherwise skip, including reformulated sauces, baked goods, dairy alternatives, and more. Vegan egg replacers like flaxseed, chia, starches, and hydrocolloids are crucial to achieving excellent results in vegan formulations.
Egg Allergies
The number of Americans with egg allergies has steadily increased over the past decade to 2.7 million. This also increased the number of children under the age of 5 with egg allergies, as 0.5% to 2.5% of kids have them. Eggs are the second most common allergen among kids. While most outgrow their allergy by adolescence, experts debate the long-term effects of the allergy into adulthood.
Congress passed the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004, which requires clear labeling of products containing any of the nine major food allergens, including eggs. This protects consumers and has had the knock-on effect of accelerating the development of commercial egg replacers across a range of products.
Commercial Egg Replacer Ingredients
Fortunately for manufacturers and consumers, there are several effective egg alternatives. For baking, hydrocolloids like xanthan gum, konjac gum, and carrageenan offer the gelling, thickening, and moisture retention previously achieved by eggs.
Starches like tapioca, potato, and others are often paired with food gums and, in some cases, leavening agents to mimic the binding and thickening properties eggs provide. Formulators are constantly looking for ways to improve results, such as experimenting with plant-based proteins like soy and pea protein to introduce functional properties.
Why Are Egg Prices Rising?
Egg prices are rising in 2025 due, in part, to the second massive bird flu outbreak in less than three years. After an initial outbreak in 2022, over 154 million birds have been culled in the US alone to mitigate the spread. It’s not just bird flu, however. Egg producers are also dealing with increased feed and transportation costs, many of which are passed on to wholesalers and, finally, consumers.
The 2025 USDA egg price forecast offers little hope for relief. Prices could rise another 40% in 2025, pushing the cost of a dozen eggs in California to more than $15 by year’s end.
Manufacturers have always faced exposure to commodity price volatility, and this isn’t the first time eggs have posed a problem. Egg prices rose well over 25% after an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (bird flu) in 2014, pushing processing-grade egg prices from around 50 cents to nearly $2.50 between January 2014 and April 2015.
Formulation Solutions for a Dynamic Marketplace
Tilley Distribution provides customers with deep industry experience, technical expertise, and bespoke formulations. We combine an expansive product offering, including many egg replacers, with the value-added services that support your long-term success. See what selection and service can do for your organization. Contact our team today.
