7 Fast-Food Chains That Use Real, Whole Eggs

Eggs have become quite a luxury item these days, thanks to the ongoing avian flu outbreak that's sent prices soaring. The USDA predicts a 41.1% price hike in 2025, and chains like Waffle House and Denny’s — whose menus are basically built on eggs — are now adding a surcharge for the hard-shell staple.

This eggsistential crisis makes you wonder which fast-food chains actually crack real eggs, and which are serving up some egg-adjacent mixtures. The answer is not many.

Here are seven fast-food chains that crack real eggs, most of the time.

Wendy’s sticks to its “fresh, never frozen” philosophy — not just for beef, but for eggs too. They use fresh-cracked, Grade-A eggs in breakfast sandwiches and take sourcing seriously. Through the Wendy’s Animal Care Standards Program, they only work with U.S. suppliers audited by PAACO-certified inspectors. Back in 2016, they pledged to go 100% cage-free by 2020, and they hit that goal for their original 400 breakfast locations.

Texas pride runs deep at Whataburger, and that includes doing things right — like using fresh, never-frozen USDA beef and farm-fresh potatoes, lettuce, and tomatoes. The chain also serves 100% USDA Grade AA extra-large whole shell eggs in its breakfast items. So go ahead and grab a Breakfast on a Bun or a Breakfast Burger — no need to question which came first, the egg or the egg package.

White Castle might not be your first thought for breakfast, but if you do stop by, you’re getting real eggs. One of the oldest fast-food chains in the country, they’ve been cracking fresh whole eggs on the griddle — even after launching their Anything, Anytimeall-day breakfastmenu in 2015. Their lineup includes the Original Slider with Egg and Cheese, the Breakfast Slider, Belgian Waffle Slider, and Breakfast Toast Sandwich, all made with real eggs. As of 2023, they set a goal to go 100% cage-free by 2025.

Jack in the Box is a mixed bag — some breakfast sandwiches get a real egg cracked on-site, while others rely on bagged liquid eggs. Many of its breakfast sandwiches feature a “fried” egg that is cracked on-site. However, not all of the chain’s eggs are shell-cracked — scrambled eggs and other items use a pre-packaged liquid egg mixture. At least they’re making an effort on the sourcing front. In 2015, the company pledged to transition to 100% cage-free eggs by 2025,with an interim goal of a majority cage-free by 2020​. By late 2020, about 77% of Jack in the Box’s eggs were already from cage-free hens​.

Tim Hortons switched to real, freshly cracked eggs in 2021, replacing pre-cooked patties with Canada Grade A eggs cracked and cooked on-site. By 2025, they even introduced scrambled egg wraps made fresh in-store.

But on the ethical side, they’re behind — only 3% of their eggs across North Americawere cage-free as of 2023. They claim to be working on it, but “local” eggs don’t always mean cage-free, and competitors are way ahead.

Panera Bread is a tricky one, barely clinging to this list because, technically, it hasn’t used real eggs since 2023. The chain swapped all its breakfast eggs for a pre-mixed, pre-cooked product (made off-site) in the name of consistency.

Ironically, back in 2018, Panera even petitioned the FDA to define what qualifies as an “egg,” calling out fast-food competitors for using dozens of additives in their “egg” products instead of just, well, eggs.

These days, Panera’s breakfast sandwiches come with a folded or soufflé-style egg made from a liquid whole egg mixture rather than a freshly cracked shell egg. But, to their credit, their processed egg mixture is relatively clean — just whole eggs and a bit of citric acid to maintain color. So, there’s that.

On the bright side, Panera is at least a strong contender in ethical sourcing. They committed to using 100% cage-free eggs by 2020 and actually met that goal by June 2021.

McDonald's is another chain that barely deserves a spot on this list, but here we are. The world's largest fast-food chain claims on its website that it uses real eggs for all its breakfast items — just “prepares them a little differently” for each sandwich. What that really means is that only the beloved Egg McMuffin gets a freshly cracked, on-site USDA Grade A egg cooked in an ‘egg ring.’ The rest — scrambled eggs, folded eggs, and Sausage Burrito eggs — come from liquid egg mixtures that usually contain more than just egg whites and yolks.

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