Waffle House Implements 50 Cent Surcharge on Each Egg Due to Supply Issues Caused by Bird Flu

Waffle House has temporarily raised its prices as the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) know as bird flu ravages the nation’s farms.

On Monday, Feb. 3, the restaurant chain implemented a temporary $0.50 surcharge for every egg ordered amid supply issues caused by the current bird flu outbreak.

“The continuing egg shortage caused by HPAI (Bird Flu) has caused a dramatic increase in egg prices. Consumers and restaurants are being forced to make difficult decisions,” a memo shared with Nextstar reads.

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!

While Waffle House did not give an end date for the per egg surcharge, it said that it is intended to be “a temporary targeted surcharge tied to the unprecedented rise in egg prices.”

“While we hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived we cannot predict how long this shortage will last,” the memo said, per Nextstar.

Eggs are Waffle House’s most popular item. According to its website, it serves 272 million eggs per year, followed by hashbrowns (153 million) and waffles (124 million). PEOPLE reached out to Waffle House for comment.

Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that in January 2024, the average price of grade A large eggs per dozen was $2.52.

While the price has fluctuated since then, it was $4.15 by December 2024. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, egg prices are predicted to increase 20.3% in 2025.

While the current bird flu outbreak began in 2020 and reached the United States in 2022, it spiked in recent months.

Per the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), as of Feb. 4, 2025, 16 states have H5N1 (avian flu) outbreaks in dairy cows with 957 dairy herds affected. The agency also reports 51 jurisdictions with poultry outbreaks, and a staggering 153 million poultry affected. Bird flu has also been reported in 51 jurisdictions and detected in 11,000 wild birds.

Last April, the World Health Organization expressed “enormous concern” about the potential spread of the bird flu to humans.

“This is a huge concern and I think we have to … make sure that if H5N1 did come across to humans with human-to-human transmission, that we were in a position to immediately respond with access equitably to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics,” said Dr. Jeremy Farrar, WHO’s chief scientist, according to a United Nations report.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

While there is no evidence that bird flu can be transmitted from human to human, as of February 2024, there have been 67 cases of bird flu in humans in the United States and one death.

Amid the escalating outbreak, the Trump administration ordered a pause on all communications made by federal health agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, per CNN. The pause has prevented important studies on bird flu and its transmission from being published.