The national Eggo shortage kicked into high gear this week as the last packages disappeared from store shelves around the country.

According to AP:

Stay-at-home mom Joey Resciniti says she bought one of the last two boxes of Eggos at a Walmart in Cranberry Township, Pa., on Monday. The frozen waffles are a favorite of her 4-year-old daughter, Julia.

"We have eight of them, and if we ration those — maybe have half an Eggo in one sitting — then it'll last longer," said Resciniti, who blogs about being a mother. "I told my husband that maybe I need to put them on eBay." 

Eggos on eBay could be a good strategy—if you don’t mind receiving them as glop rather than crispy frozen morsels.

And Ms. Resciniti may be on to something in terms of portion control.  After the halvsies give out, why not resort to quarters, eighths, and sixteenths?

Company spokeswaffler Kris Charles said, “It will take until the middle of 2010 before shelves around the country are stocked at pre-shutdown levels.”

The declaration came as thousands of people lined up in cities across the country to receive the last few packages available.  A few food retailers have set up triage tents in their parking lots to distribute Aunt Jemima pancake mix (“It can too be used for waffles!” they insist.) at reduced rates. 

Meanwhile, the company has devised a sophisticated rationing protocol by which young children will receive the first new Eggos that become available, followed by pregnant women, people with pre-exisiting conditions, and aged people between 50 and 60.

The rest of us, including dogs, are instantly left waffle-less by the this plan, although the company has made noises about developing an oral mist.

All of this begs important questions:  will it be enough—and will the Eggos arrive in time?

Company scientists insist that the egg-based formula used for growing the adult Eggos cannot, at this time, be replaced by new GMO technologies that allow Eggos to grow by using proprietary, portable, recombinant cell-culture technology.  Of course, no one knows if the new technology is safe, yet, but testing is reprtedly being conducted 24-7 at the Center for New American Cosmetology.

Best of luck, I say, although it’s not as if any Eggo scraps are ever left over after breakfast at my house.

Lurve,

Hgurl, Online Food Technology and Major Disease Correspondent