Farm-egg sales in Austin take a hit

AUSTIN (KXAN) - At her Farm to Market Grocery , Peg McCoy gets most of her products directly from local growers.

But the four-year owner of the business is selling a new batch of eggs lately after a City of Austin health inspector recently said she sold the wrong kind.

Her eggs came directly from a local farmer, but did not have a grade or safe handling instructions on them, as required by Texas food safety law.

"There wasn't any [grade] on the eggs, and I said, 'Well I've been selling the eggs for the four years that I've been open and I've never had a problem with them before,'" McCoy said.

Since 1998, state law has said ungraded eggs cannot be sold in stores.

But health inspectors said more organic stores in Austin are creating a bigger challenge.

"We're charged with enforcing the rules, all the rules," said Vince Delisi, a supervisor of the Austin/Travis County Health and Department .

Delisi said inspectors noticed ungraded eggs in April. He said inspectors may have just overlooked the eggs before.

The city is now telling all grocers and restuarants to stop selling them. Restaurants like Fino, Asti , Olivia and Uchi all use ungraded eggs in their products, and now must comply with the new enforcement.

"We're trying to be as consistent as possible," said Delisi. "It's not our job to try to put small business and small farmers out of business."

State law said farmer's markets are exempt because people can buy directly from the farmer without a middleman.

But back where the farm comes directly to market, McCoy said, "It's not good news for the farmer and it's not good news for me. Because they're excellent eggs and we sold lots of them."

"I'm just in a wait and see hold pattern," she said.