AUSTIN, Texas — Last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton finalized a settlement with Cal-Maine Foods Inc., where Cal-Maine will have to donate more than 2 million eggs to food banks across the state. This settlement comes after Paxton originally sued the company in April 2020 for price gouging and illegally raising the cost of eggs by 300 percent.
“My office will crack down on any corporation illegally raising prices on Texans,” Paxton said in a statement. “Cal-Maine tried to take advantage of the people of Texas during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this settlement is an important step towards securing justice for the company’s unethical actions. Our efforts to hold Cal-Maine accountable have secured reforms that will help prevent further illegal price gouging and over two million free eggs that will be distributed by food banks across the state.”
Per the settlement, Cal-Maine will donate 180,000 dozen large brown and/or white eggs to Texas food banks in the next four months. Egg distribution will go as follows:
- At least 30,000 dozen eggs to each of the following food banks: North Texas Food Bank and Houston Food Bank;
- At least 20,000 dozen eggs to each of the following food banks: Tarrant Area Food Bank, Central Texas Food Bank, and San Antonio Food Bank;
- At least 10,000 dozen eggs to each of the following food banks: Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley, East Texas Food Bank, and El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank;
- At least 5,000 dozen eggs to each of the following food banks: Coastal Bend Food Bank, South Texas Food Bank, Southeast Texas Food Bank, and South Plains Food Bank; and
- At least 2,000 dozen eggs to each of the following food banks: High Plains Food Bank, West Texas Food Bank, Food Bank of West Central Texas; Food Bank of the Golden Crescent, and Wichita Falls Area Food Bank.
In addition to the food bank donations, the company is prohibited from demanding a price or selling eggs during a designated disaster period at a price that would violate the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, preventing any further price gouging similar to what Cal-Maine did in 2020, the Office of the Attorney General added.
The full settlement can be found at www.texasattorneygeneral.gov.
