Sad Sad Sad This is Florida regulations:
I can't believe we can't sell a fresh egg without going through all this mess!!!!
Your eggs must be washed, rinsed and sanitized before they can be offered for sale to the public. You may sell them one of two ways; graded or ungraded.
Graded eggs must be candled to check for the quality of the shell as well as the yolk and white inside. There must be no cracks anywhere on the shell. The air cell at the top of the egg must be no larger than 1/8th of an inch to be AA quality. The eggs must also be weighed according to the following specifications for the weight a dozen:
Jumbo 30 oz. or more
Ex. Large 27 oz.
Large 24 oz.
Medium 21 oz.
Small 18 oz.
Ungraded or unclassified eggs can be sold to the public, but not in dozen containers. They must be sold on flats and be identified as unclassified by a sign or placard displayed with the eggs. An acceptable placard is attached above for your convenience.
Also attached above is a Bulletin providing guidance for small egg producers developed by our Department and the University of Florida. I trust that you will find the information in this Bulletin useful.
Finally, you will need an Annual Food Permit issued by our Department. The application can be found at:
http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/onestop/forms/14221.pdf
Finally, as we discussed, our Egg Law is designed to cover the million egg a day operation and not the backyard flock. There is one break we give folks that is not mentioned anywhere above. We do not require a bathroom in your egg processing facility as long as only family members are processing the eggs. You may use the bathroom facilities in your home. If you have any further questions, please let me know.
Paul M. Raynes
Program Manager, Poultry and Egg Grading
Bureau of Food and Meat Inspection
CHARLES H. BRONSON, Commissioner
FL Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services
3125 Conner Boulevard
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1650
[email protected]
(850)245-5539