Fast-Food Breakfast Buzz Boosts Egg Whites' Prices The growing breakfast market and competition for health-conscious customers combine to create an explosion in demand for egg whites.
By Kate Taylor
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The fast-food world's breakfast battles are doing more than shaking up competition: they're scrambling egg-white prices.
As fast-food restaurants increasingly vie for a bigger slice of the breakfast market with healthy offerings, egg white sandwiches and wraps have become a low-calorie staple. As a result, egg white prices have been soaring, with the industry struggling to keep up with demand.
The entire egg industry has enjoyed a boost from the fast-food industry's breakfast obsession, with the reporting recently that wholesale prices for processed eggs leapt 56 cents from a year ago.
However, health-conscious diners have crowned the egg white the most valuable part of the egg. Liquid egg whites now cost more than whole eggs or yolks, with their cost increasing . Meanwhile, dried whites now as they did a year ago.
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Egg processors have been working to keep up with demand, but have struggled to access sufficient raw materials. According to the USDA, dried egg white inventory is down .
Today, the egg white breakfast sandwich is almost as ubiquitous on the fast-food menu as a burger. McDonald's has the Egg White Delight, Starbucks has the Spinach and Feta breakfast wrap, Subway has the Egg White and Cheese Flatbread. Breakfast newcomer Taco Bell and classics-focused Burger King have yet to reveal any yolk-less offerings, but that may change soon.
Buzzwords linked to healthy eating pop up on every restaurant's menu. While recent studies have shown that eggs play only a in cholesterol levels, egg white sandwiches have gained the reputation as the healthier option in fast-food chains. With chains from McDonald's to Chick-fil-A competing for customers by adjusting menus to at least appear to be healthy, the egg white menu takeover has only just begun.
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