Costco's Kirkland Butter Is Under A Recall, So Check Your Fridge

If you're a Costco butter buyer, you'd better check your fridge. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a recall on 79,200 pounds of the company's house brand Kirkland Signature butter sold in Texas. About a month later, in November, the company has since updated some of the information regarding the butter in question.

Both salted and unsalted packages of Kirkland Signature Sweet Cream Butter are affected by the recall, which was issued due to an undeclared allergen. Apparently, the problem was that certain packages listed cream as an ingredient but did not also have the required allergy statement "contains milk" visible on the label. While it might seem like no big deal for folks who don't have issues with dairy, 6.2 million people suffer from milk allergies, according to Food Allergy Research & Information. These individuals could suffer serious allergic reactions if they were to unknowingly eat products that aren't properly labeled. 

On November 7, the FDA updated the recall to classify it as Class II. According to the FDA website, this means that the recall is, "a situation in which use of, or exposure to, a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote."

If you have Kirkland butter in your fridge and you're concerned about the recall, especially for those with milk allergies, be sure to take a peek at the UPC and lot codes and check them against the lists posted on the FDA website (unsalted packages are listed here, and salted packages are here). The recall affects 1,300 cases of Kirkland Signature Unsalted Sweet Cream Butter and 900 cases of Kirkland Signature Salted Sweet Cream Butter. Both varieties will have "best by" dates between February 22, 2025 and March 29, 2025, so check those first before checking the FDA website to save some time.

So far, there are no recommendations from the FDA about what to do with the recalled butter, but if you are allergic to milk, you should either return the packages to the Costco store where you bought them for a refund, or you can throw them away. If you don't have a milk allergy, then the butter is safe to eat. And since you're already poking around in the fridge, be sure to also check other products that might be subject to recent recalls, like cheese (recalled for listeria risk), ready-to-eat meat (also listeria), and eggs (salmonella risk).