The EVERY Company says its OvoPro egg-white protein is now being used in products sold through Walmart and Target. The company says annual orders secured during the first four months of 2026 were equivalent to 550% of its total order volume for all of 2025.
OvoPro Is Real Protein — But It Is Not A Chicken Egg
OvoPro is produced through precision fermentation, a process in which microorganisms are programmed to produce a particular protein.
In this case, the microorganism is Komagataella phaffii, a yeast. The resulting protein is intended to function as egg-white protein in food products, but no chicken is required to produce it.
The FDA has reviewed the ingredient through its Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) notification process. In GRAS Notice 1104, the FDA said it had “no questions” regarding the company’s conclusion that egg-white protein produced by K. phaffii was GRAS for its intended uses.
The FDA notice describes the ingredient as a substitute for hen egg-white protein and whole eggs.
OvoPro also should not be confused with cultivated meat. Cultivated meat is produced by growing animal cells. Precision fermentation instead uses microorganisms to produce a particular protein.
Is OvoPro Already on Walmart and Target Shelves?
Yes — as an ingredient in finished packaged foods.
EVERY said in June that OvoPro had secured national retail placement in Walmart and Target, alongside demand through e-commerce and foodservice channels. The company announced a partnership expansion with Huvepharma (via subsidiary Biovet AD) intended to quadruple its production capacity.
OvoPro is a B2B ingredient used by food manufacturers. Consumers are therefore more likely to encounter it in a packaged food than in a carton of shell eggs.
How Can Consumers Tell What They Are Buying?
The answer is the ingredient label.
Federal FDA rules require packaged foods containing multiple ingredients to identify ingredients by their common or usual names. FDA guidance specifically identifies failure to provide a complete ingredient list or failure to use an ingredient’s common or usual name as labeling violations.
Food labeling also cannot be false or misleading.
That means a food manufacturer cannot simply purchase an ingredient from a third-party supplier and use the supplier relationship as a reason to omit a required ingredient from the finished product’s ingredient statement.
The more complicated question is what name must appear on the label.
EVERY has said it recommends identifying its product as “animal-free egg white protein” or “egg white protein from yeast,” but the final label is determined by the company selling the finished food.
That does not mean a manufacturer is free to conceal the ingredient. FDA requirements still apply to the finished product.
There is also an important distinction for consumers with egg allergies. Although OvoPro is produced without chickens, the company says its protein is not appropriate for people with egg allergies because it is an egg protein.
Does It Have To Say “Bioengineered”?
Not necessarily.
The USDA’s National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard requires disclosure when a food (or ingredient) meets the federal definition of a bioengineered food — generally when it contains genetic material that has been modified through in vitro recombinant DNA techniques and that modification could not otherwise be obtained through conventional breeding or found in nature, and when that modified genetic material is detectable.
USDA guidance and the regulation itself provide that foods or ingredients in which modified genetic material is no longer detectable (for example, after validated refining or processing steps that remove it) are not considered bioengineered foods under the standard and therefore do not require disclosure, provided the required records are maintained.
The EVERY Company has stated that its final purified proteins do not contain detectable modified genetic material from the production yeast.
(Note: A federal court ruling in early August 2026 found certain aspects of the highly refined ingredients exemption and disclosure methods arbitrary, requiring USDA to revise the standard by 2028; this does not automatically change existing product labeling obligations in the interim.)
Texas Has Added Its Own Layer of Rules
Texas has taken a different approach from some states toward alternative and cultivated foods.
Senate Bill 664, enacted in 2023, created definitions and labeling requirements for certain analogue and cell-cultured products. The legislation defines an analogue product in terms of food derived from processed plant products, insects, or fungus and addresses qualifying language used with terms such as meat, poultry, fish, and egg.
Texas subsequently went further on cultivated protein.
Senate Bill 261, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in June 2025, prohibits the sale of cell-cultured protein for human consumption in Texas until September 1, 2027. The prohibition is directed at cell-cultured protein, meaning products made using animal cells.
That law does not automatically prohibit precision-fermented egg protein such as OvoPro because OvoPro is not produced by growing animal cells.
The Dallas Express previously reported on Texas’ cultivated-meat ban and the debate surrounding alternative proteins. In June 2025, DX reported that SB 261 temporarily banned the sale of lab-grown meat in Texas.
The Dallas Express also covered the earlier debate over whether Texas should follow Florida in restricting cultivated meat, including the state’s 2023 labeling law.
A Fight Over Labels Is Already Underway
Texas’ cultivated-meat law is also being challenged in federal court.
In January 2026, The Dallas Express reported that a federal judge allowed a lawsuit brought by Wildtype and UPSIDE Foods challenging the Texas cultivated-meat ban to proceed, while leaving the ban in effect during the litigation. The law currently prohibits the sale of cell-grown meat through September 2027, after which qualifying products are to be labeled with terms such as “cell-cultured” or “lab-grown.”
That case involves cultivated meat, not OvoPro, but it shows just how quickly the legal framework surrounding alternative food production is evolving.
This Is Bigger Than Eggs
The technology behind OvoPro is part of a larger shift toward producing specific animal proteins without raising the traditional animal.
The Dallas Express examined precision fermentation as far back as 2022 in its coverage of efforts to produce cow-free dairy proteins. That article explained how microorganisms such as yeast can be genetically programmed to produce animal proteins in fermentation tanks.
The Dallas Express has also extensively covered cultivated meat, including the 2023 federal authorization of cultivated chicken and subsequent developments in the technology.
The technologies are different, but they point toward the same broader development: food companies increasingly can reproduce individual components of conventional animal foods without obtaining those components directly from an animal.
For consumers, the issue is becoming increasingly simple: Do you know what you’re actually buying — and will the label tell you?
We know that a conventional egg comes from a laying hen.
A steak comes from cattle.
Milk comes from a dairy cow.
But…
A precision-fermented protein can begin with genetically programmed yeast, a fermentation tank, and a purification process that the average consumer knows little about.
The technology is advancing faster than many consumers may realize. And as these ingredients move into everyday foods, the question is no longer simply what is in your food, but whether the package makes clear how that food was made.
The Dallas Express will continue to follow developments in alternative proteins, food labeling, and the changing regulatory landscape.
Provided by Dallas Express
