The Costco Kirkland Signature Butter Recall That Impacted 80,000 Pounds Of Product

Food recalls can occur for a variety of reasons — bacterial contamination, labeling issues, or even due to finding foreign matter in products. Costco has seen plenty of recalls in its history, and in 2024, a massive butter recall stemmed from an improper label. Although it seems obvious that butter contains dairy, due to FDA regulations, milk allergens must be declared on packaging. Costco's Kirkland Signature butter was missing this declaration, so nearly 80,000 pounds of the product had to be recalled. The recall was split between two types of Kirkland Signature butter: Salted and Unsalted Sweet Cream Butter.

The recall was a bit controversial given the obvious nature of butter containing milk. The action sparked a number of Reddit discussions, with users being concerned that the butter would be thrown out if it wasn't worth the money and time to re-package it all. With that said, some who purchased the butter might have opted not to return it for the recall, given that they already recognized it contained dairy.

Besides the massive butter recall, Kirkland Signature products have been at the center of a handful of Costco recalls in recent years. In September 2025, Costco and the FDA recalled Kirkland Signature Ahi Tuna Wasabi Poke due to potential contamination with Listeria. It also recalled its Kirkland Signature Prosecco Valdobbiadene in 2025 due to a risk of the bottles shattering, as well as its Kirkland Signature Severe Cold & Flu Plus Congestion due to potential contamination with foreign matter. It's also had a big frozen fruit recall in 2013 and an egg recall in 2024.

Food recalls are more common than ever, but that actually might not be a bad thing. Rather than the food supply being less safe, companies have better technology to test and understand when something isn't right. "You're starting to have better prevention programs within the industry of manufactured foods to prevent and see what they may be running into," Brian Schaneberg, executive director at the Institute for Food Safety and Health at Illinois Institute of Technology, told NBC. He also noted that, while there were more recall events in 2025 than 2024, there were fewer actual products recalled than the previous year, which is an improvement.