Where Costco Sources Its Kirkland Signature Smoked Salmon From

If you love a bagel with lox and cream cheese as much as I do, you're often looking for a good deal on smoked salmon (which is different from lox, though many use the terms interchangeably). Well, at Costco, you can get 24 ounces of the wholesaler's Kirkland Signature smoked salmon for just under $25, which equates to a savings of about $2 an ounce compared to a high-quality equivalent at Whole Foods. According to the product's packaging, it is farm-raised fish originating from Norway. It is then shipped by ferry to the Netherlands to undergo the smoking process, before it's finished and packaged by the manufacturer. 

Since we love a bit of gastronomic detective work, we wanted to know who supplies Costco with this delicacy. The answer: U.S.-based Acme Smoked Fish Corporation. Unfortunately, one of the main reasons we know this is because the company issued a recall of over 100 cases of the product in 2024 due to contamination with dangerous listeria monocytogenes bacteria (via the FDA). (No other such recalls for the product have since been reported.) 

Acme is among the biggest seafood processors in the United States and has been operating as a family-owned business for over 70 years. It is committed to protecting the environment through sustainable sourcing, which is why it acquires the Kirkland Signature smoked salmon from select Norwegian farms that meet its exacting standards. 

Though the names of the specific Norwegian fish farms appear to be unknown, the back of the product packaging describes them as "well-established" and the breed of salmon as Atlantic. It also says Costco is very particular about the attributes of the fish harvested, including their color, size, muscle tone, and fat. 

The wholesaler is a stickler when it comes to the method used to prepare the salmon once it arrives in the Netherlands, too, as stated on the packaging. The fish undergoes a long smoking process over European oak and beechwood to produce a savory, woody flavor that's subtle enough not to overpower the natural taste of the salmon. Costco's specific current processor is unknown, but at least in 2012 it was Foppen Seafood, headquartered in Harderwijk, the Netherlands, which sells its own products at Costco. 

Although it's not 100% clear from the package or Costco's website, this is almost certainly a cold-smoked product, as that's the norm for this smooth, buttery, lox-style type of salmon, which closely resembles the raw form. Cold smoking also tends to yield a milder, more delicate flavor that's less earthy and woody, such as that which Costco uses to describe the product. Additionally, Kirkland Signature has another variety of Atlantic smoked salmon with a touch of honey, which has a coarser, flakier texture and directly states "hot smoked" on the packaging. That one looks and tastes more like cooked salmon. The exact source of that variety is unstated on the packaging, but it is smoked with American hardwoods like hickory, implying the processing occurs domestically.