Can I sell eggs in Illinois?

Do I need a license to sell eggs in Illinois?

The Egg and Egg Products Act says no one may “buy, sell, trade, or traffic in eggs in this State without having obtained a license,” except “a producer who obtains eggs from his own flock, regardless of the size of the flock, and sells them as nest run eggs, either to household consumers on the premises where the flock is located, or to a holder of an Illinois Egg License” (410 ILCS 615/8(a)). “Nest run eggs” are “eggs which are packed as they come from the production facilities without having been washed, sized, or candled for quality,” with some checks and dirties removed (615/3.23). The Department’s page puts the exemption in its own words: nest-run eggs from your own flock may be sold “to household consumers” for “their own personal use,” only “on the premises where the flock is located. The consumer must pick up the eggs from the same location where the poultry are located. This type of shell egg sale is EXEMPT and does not require an Illinois Egg License.”

The statute adds that the household buyer is buying “for the consumer’s personal use and that consumer’s non-paying guests” (615/6), and defines a consumer as a person who acquires eggs “for consumption by members of his own household, nonpaying guests and employees, and not for resale” (615/3.6).

Anything else takes a license. The Department says a producer selling eggs from its own flock off the premises “is required to obtain an Illinois Egg License,” a limited producer-dealer license for graded eggs of its own flock and a full license for a producer that also sells other farms’ eggs. The Department’s rules set $15 for the limited license and $50 for the full one (8 Ill. Adm. Code 65.110). The Department’s rules booklet sums the law up in one more line: it “does not apply to those nest run eggs sold by a producer when eggs are produced by his own flock, except where he elects to subject himself to the law’s provisions by engaging in selling eggs for public consumption.” The sources read do not say what “public consumption” adds to the statute’s words.

The sources read do not say what a county or city health department requires of a farm selling from its own premises. The farmers’ market statute speaks of markets (below), and the Department tells egg producers to “check with their local health department or farmer’s market manager regarding any other requirements.” On online sales the Department’s retail page says: “Utilizing a virtual retail marketing platform to sell shell eggs that are delivered or shipped to the end consumer is considered a retail sale off the premises and therefore all retail sale requirements (wash, grade, candle, refrigerate, new consumer sized carton and properly labeled) shall be met.” It speaks of eggs delivered or shipped. The sources read do not say how the Department treats eggs listed or requested online and picked up by the buyer at the farm, or a site that only takes requests. A farm that lists eggs or takes requests online should ask the Department before it does.

Source: 410 ILCS 615, 8 Ill. Adm. Code 65, Department of Agriculture, Selling Eggs and Department of Agriculture, Egg Act and Rules booklet.

How many eggs can I sell without a license in Illinois?

No hen or dozen limit turned up on the exemption. The statute exempts a producer’s nest-run eggs “regardless of the size of the flock” (410 ILCS 615/8(a)), and a producer is a person who feeds and houses “any number” of chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese or guineas (615/3.28). The limit is on the sale: the buyer is a household, buying for personal use and its non-paying guests, and the buyer collects on the premises where the flock is kept (615/6).

The Department’s license fee follows the kind of seller and not a count of dozens: $15 for a limited license and $50 for a full one (8 Ill. Adm. Code 65.110). An inspection fee of up to 11¢ per 30 dozen is charged on eggs “bearing a designated size and grade” (615/10); the sources read do not say it reaches nest-run eggs, which carry neither.

A federal rule adds a line at 3,000 hens. FDA’s egg safety rule covers a producer with 3,000 or more laying hens “that does not sell all of your eggs directly to consumers” (21 CFR 118.1), and its words do not reach a farm under that line. The Department’s rule mentions the same number: a producer-dealer with fewer than 3,000 birds who candles and grades must still hold a State license (8 Ill. Adm. Code 65.190(i)).

Source: 410 ILCS 615, 8 Ill. Adm. Code 65 and 21 CFR 118.1.

Can I sell eggs at a farmers market in Illinois?

Yes, with a license and graded eggs. A farmers market is off the premises where the flock is kept, and the statute says “All eggs designated for sale off the premises where the entire flock is located, such as at farmers’ markets, and at retail or for institutional use must be candled and graded and held in a place or room in which the temperature may not exceed 45 degrees Fahrenheit after processing” (410 ILCS 615/6). The Department’s guide for markets says an Illinois Egg License “is required for anyone who transports and sells eggs anywhere except on the farm where the eggs were produced,” and that eggs at markets “must be candled and graded, and held at 45˚ F or below,” in packages that are labeled, with “used consumer containers” prohibited. The limited license, at $15, covers a producer selling only eggs of its own production (8 Ill. Adm. Code 65.110).

The health side is local. The farmers’ market statute has a farmer selling “Meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs raised or grown on the farm of the farmer selling the food product” obtain a Farmers’ Market Permit from “each local health department that chooses to require” one; the department may ask for “an Illinois Egg License issued by the Department of Agriculture” and at least one annual inspection; and the fee for “a limited egg Farmers’ Market Permit covering only the sale of eggs” is capped at $75, raised 10% on January 1, 2026 and every third year after (410 ILCS 625/3.3(m)(2.10), (2.15), (2.20)). The Department of Public Health says farmers markets “are regulated by local health departments,” so the permit, its fee and any inspection come from the health department where you sell.

Source: 410 ILCS 615, 8 Ill. Adm. Code 65, 410 ILCS 625/3.3, Department of Public Health, Farmers Markets and Farmers Market Guide (2023).

Can I sell eggs to a restaurant, a store or someone who resells them in Illinois?

Yes, with an Illinois Egg License and candled, graded eggs. The statute says “All eggs sold at retail or purchased by institutional consumers must be candled for quality and graded for size” (410 ILCS 615/6), and the rules bar selling shell eggs “to retailers, institutional consumers, or food manufacturers” that are not Grade B or better, “except that producers may sell directly to household consumers nest run eggs produced by their own flocks” (8 Ill. Adm. Code 65.40(a)). An “institutional consumer” includes any restaurant, hotel or other place where eggs are “prepared or offered as food” (615/3.19). A licensed producer-dealer selling graded eggs to a retailer or institution gives the buyer an invoice showing the “exact grade and size” (615/12), and the retailer side is a store that buys candled and graded eggs from a licensed source (615/3.31).

The one sale of nest-run eggs off the household path is a producer selling them “to a holder of an Illinois Egg License” (615/8(a)), a grading station that candles and grades them. A restaurant is an institutional consumer and not a household consumer, and the sources read do not say whether a restaurant that collects its eggs at the farm is inside the exemption. Ask the Department.

Source: 410 ILCS 615, 8 Ill. Adm. Code 65 and Department of Agriculture, Selling Eggs.

Do I need to grade or label my eggs in Illinois?

For a licensed seller the carton carries the grade and size in bold type, the packer’s name and address, and a three-digit Julian candling date, with an expiration date not more than 45 days after candling for Grade A and 30 days for Grade AA (410 ILCS 615/6; 8 Ill. Adm. Code 65.30). The statute says “Each container of eggs offered for sale or sold at wholesale or retail must be labeled” with grade, size, packer identification and candling date. Eggs sold at retail go in new cartons, “prepackaged” (65.20(a), (b)). The Department calls “eggs sold at retail” eggs “offered for sale or sold to a consumer off the premises where the flock is maintained” (65.10).

For the exempt sale, the rule has a line of its own: “ungraded eggs sold directly by producers to household consumers may be packaged in unmarked new or unmarked good used consumer-size containers” (8 Ill. Adm. Code 65.20(a)). So a used carton is named for that sale only; the Department’s market guide says used consumer containers are prohibited at markets, where the eggs are graded. The sources read do not say whether the grade-and-size label rule in the statute reaches the exempt sale beyond that line, and the Department’s program page says egg cartons “must be labeled to identify day of pack, expiration date, grade, size, name, address, and identification of the packer” without saying for whom. Ask the Department.

The rules also say that nobody but a seller of “only nest run eggs produced by their own flocks” may call eggs “fresh” unless they meet Grade A (65.60(a); the statute’s §7 says “only eggs produced by their own flocks”). Federal rules put the "Safe Handling Instructions" statement on every carton of shell eggs (21 CFR 101.17(h)); the Department’s pages read do not mention it for a farm’s own sale.

Source: 410 ILCS 615, 8 Ill. Adm. Code 65, Department of Agriculture, Egg Inspection, Farmers Market Guide (2023) and 21 CFR 101.17(h).

Do eggs have to be refrigerated to sell in Illinois, and at what temperature?

For candled, graded eggs, 45°F: eggs designated for sale off the premises, at retail or for institutions must be held “in a place or room in which the temperature may not exceed 45 degrees Fahrenheit after processing” (410 ILCS 615/6), and the rule says the same from the point of candling and grading until the eggs reach the retailer, and that shell eggs be kept from freezing (8 Ill. Adm. Code 65.90(a), (b)). The Department’s list of supplies a new licensed producer needs before its first inspection includes “Refrigeration- 45 degrees F or less with storage and transport.”

For nest-run eggs the statute and the rule disagree. The statute, last amended in 2019 (P.A. 101-158), says “Nest run eggs must be held and transported at or below 45 degrees Fahrenheit ambient temperature beginning 36 hours after the time of lay” (410 ILCS 615/6). The rule says “Nest run eggs shall be held at 60° F. or less at all times, including during transportation” (65.90(c), last amended in 1997). Which one the Department enforces on a farm selling nest-run eggs to a household is not stated in the sources read. Ask the Department.

A federal rule says “all shell eggs, whether in intrastate or interstate commerce, held for retail distribution” are stored and displayed under refrigeration at an ambient temperature “not greater than 7.2 °C (45 °F)” at a retail establishment (21 CFR 115.50), and defines that as “an operation that stores, prepares, packages, serves, vends, or otherwise provides food for human consumption directly to consumers” (115.50(a)). The sources read do not say how that meets a farm’s own sale.

Source: 410 ILCS 615, 8 Ill. Adm. Code 65, Department of Agriculture, Selling Eggs and 21 CFR 115.50.

Can I sell duck, quail or other eggs in Illinois?

The Act’s “eggs” are “the shell eggs of the domesticated chicken, turkey, duck, goose, or guinea” (410 ILCS 615/3.13), and a producer is a person who feeds and houses any number of those birds and obtains eggs from them (615/3.28). The Department says the Act requires a license of “anyone who grades, packs, sells or barters shell eggs of the domesticated chicken, turkey, duck, goose or guinea.” The Act’s words put a duck, goose, turkey or guinea egg under the same exemption for nest-run eggs sold to a household on the farm, and the same license, grading, cartons and cold for anything else.

Quail and other birds are not named. The sources read do not say whether a quail egg is inside the Act or what applies to it. Ask the Department.

Source: 410 ILCS 615 and Department of Agriculture, Egg Inspection.

Do I have to wash or candle eggs to sell them in Illinois?

Not for the exempt sale. The statute says a producer may sell nest-run eggs on its own premises to household consumers “without candling or grading those eggs” (410 ILCS 615/6), and nest-run eggs are ones “packed as they come from the production facilities without having been washed, sized, or candled for quality” (615/3.23). The rule lets a producer sell checks and dirties on its own premises directly to households for their own use (8 Ill. Adm. Code 65.190(c)); a licensed seller may not sell restricted eggs to anyone (65.190(d)), and no one may sell eggs that are inedible or a loss (410 ILCS 615/4).

For everything else, yes. The Department’s program page says “Eggs sold for human consumption must be washed candled, graded, and refrigerated,” and its page on online sales lists “wash, grade, candle, refrigerate, new consumer sized carton and properly labeled.” The rules for grading plants set wash water at 90°F minimum, 20° above the egg’s temperature, and prohibit washing “by hand, or by any other method in which the water temperature, cleaning and sanitizing agents, and bacterial contamination cannot be controlled” (65.150(e), (f)). A new licensed producer’s supply list has a candling light, a scale, new cartons, 45°F refrigeration and an approved cleaner and sanitizer.

The sources read do not say whether an exempt seller who chooses to wash an egg takes on any of these rules. Ask the Department.

Source: 410 ILCS 615, 8 Ill. Adm. Code 65, Department of Agriculture, Egg Inspection, Department of Agriculture, Illinois Egg Law and Department of Agriculture, Selling Eggs.