Fast-Food Chains That Don't Use 'Real' Whole Eggs

The customer might always be right, but they rarely know what’s actually happening behind the counters of their favorite fast-food chains. That breakfast sandwich egg isn’t coming from a skillet — it’s coming from a pre-packaged blend with more than just egg whites and yolks.

While some fast-food restaurants use real whole eggs — straight from the hen instead of a factory blend — many popular chains still rely on “egg-adjacent” mixes packed with stabilizers, preservatives, and fillers.

If whole eggs matter to you, here are six fast-food chains where you won’t find them.

Chick-fil-A’s die-hard fans will defend the chain with everything they’ve got, and fair enough — the chicken is solid. But the eggs in the Chicken Egg & Cheese Biscuit come with more than just egg whites and yolks. Think of it as an egg with a chemical support system. 

These eggs aren’t cracked on-site but blended with water, soybean oil, citric acid, xanthan gum (to thicken), annatto (for color), and “natural butter flavor.” The additives aren’t harmful, but the extra oils add unnecessary fat. Chick-fil-A has pledged togo cage-free by 2026, so time will tell how that plays out.

Starbucks is often a logical breakfast stop while grabbing a morning pick-me-up. The coffee chain has plenty of breakfast options, but there are no fresh-cracked eggs in sight. 

The ingredient list for most of its egg-based breakfast items includes water, modified food starch, soybean oil, whey solids, and citric acid. That creamy texture is all thanks to added stabilizers, not a barista whipping eggs in the back. For something closer to a real egg, Starbucks’ Protein Boxes include hard-boiled eggs, with citric acid as the only preservative.

Dunkin’ breakfast sandwiches — whether it’s the Sourdough Breakfast Sandwich or Wake-Up Wrap — use a folded egg patty that’s more than just eggs. The mix includes egg whites, yolks, water, soybean oil, cornstarch, xanthan gum, and other stabilizers.

In 2016, Dunkin’ cut down on fillers to include “more egg,” but in 2019, a TikTok videosurfaced showing someone banging a rock-hard frozen egg patty on the counter, saying, “This is how Dunkin’s eggs look like.”

Burger King serves up a solid breakfast lineup, being one of the first fast food chains to experiment with serving the most important meal of the day. However, the eggs in every breakfast item from the Croissan’Wich to the Egg-normous Burrito are more engineered than freshly cracked. 

Each sandwich features a liquid egg-pasteurized mixture, blending whole eggs with water, salt, xanthan gum (a thickener), citric acid (a preservative), butter flavor, and annatto for color.

If you thought “Eat Fresh” applied to Subway’s eggs, think again. Subway’s breakfast omelet patties havebeen called out for having more non-egg ingredients than any other major chain. 

A decade ago, they included dextrose, propylene glycol, and glycerin — more lab experiment than breakfast. While Subway has cleaned up the formula, today’s egg patties still contain 17+ ingredients, including nonfat dry milk, soybean oil, gums, and a “liquid butter alternative” that comes with its own lengthy ingredient list.

Taco Bell made headlinesin 2016 for switching to 100%cage-free eggs, but that doesn’t mean they’re additive-free. Their scrambled egg patties (used in burritos, Crunchwraps, and quesadillas) include whole eggs mixed with oils, salt, citric acid, gums, and preservatives.