Waffle House adds surcharge to all eggs due to bird flu

Source: The Washington Post / Getty

As the largest bird flu outbreak in a decade continues to send egg prices through the roof across the United States, Waffle House customers will now have to pay more for their breakfast.

The Georgia-based 24-hour diner chain announced it is now placing a temporary 50 cent surcharge on every egg sold at all of its more than 2,000 locations across 25 states. The decision is in an attempt to offset the rising cost of eggs due to the avian flu.

“While we hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived we cannot predict how long this shortage will last,” the company said, according to The Associated Press.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts egg prices will increase by more than 20% this year because of the bird flu outbreak. The average price for a dozen of eggs in the U.S. was about $4.15 in December, according to most recent government data.

Nearly 119,000 birds in the U.S. have been culled since early December to prevent the spread of the H5N9 strain, as well as the more common H5N1 strain.

Read more from WRTV here