US health authorities have elevated a recall of nearly 1.6 million dozen eggs to the FDA's highest-risk classification after a salmonella outbreak linked to the products sickened at least 98 people across 17 states, hospitalising 26. The eggs, produced by Midwest Poultry Services at its Texas farms, were distributed across the southern and south-western United States — including to Kroger and Brookshire Grocery stores in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Mississippi — and may still be in homes as their sell-by dates extend through 17 August. The outbreak adds to a mounting food safety crisis in the US, which is simultaneously battling one of its largest ever recorded foodborne illness events, with over 13,000 confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis linked to contaminated lettuce.