The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has a robust research program that includes studies of egg safety and quality. Here are the ARS units performing research in this area.

(Go here for a complete list of all ARS units working on poultry)

Egg Safety And Quality Research Unit

South Atlantic Area
950 College Station Road
Athens, Georgia 30605

The mission of the Egg Safety and Quality Research Unit is to protect both the health of consumers and the marketability of eggs by conducting research to develop improved technologies for egg production and processing that reduce or eliminate microorganisms that can transmit disease to humans or cause spoilage. Among the specific objectives of this research are determining how microbial pathogens infect poultry and cause egg contamination, understanding how poultry production practices can influence such infections, developing effective methods for preventing infection of egg-laying poultry by pathogens and for testing to detect infected flocks and contaminated eggs, and improving egg processing practices to reduce microbial contamination while enhancing egg quality.

Poultry Microbiological Safety Research Unit

Richard B. Russell Agricultural Research Center
950 College Station Road
Athens, Georgia 30605

The mission of the Poultry Microbiological Safety and Processing Research Unit is to develop technology to diminish and control the association with and colonization of chickens by human bacterial enteropathogens (i.e., Salmonella and Campylobacter). The research addresses all phases of production from the egg to the processing plant so that chickens can be delivered to processing plants with reduced or no Salmonella and Campylobacter minimizing consumer exposure to enteropathogens. The research program is carried out with four research projects.

Food Safety and Intervention Technologies Unit

Eastern Regional Research Center
600 Mermaid Lane
Wyndmoor PA 19038

Research is conducted to protect the health of the public through the development and validation of novel process interventions to improve the safety and shelf-life of foods. • Determine the incidence and prevalence of microbial contaminants in food • Develop and validate non-thermal and advanced thermal intervention technologies to improve the safety of meat, poultry, seafood, shell eggs, and produce • Transfer these novel processes and procedures to our customers and stakeholders.