Who Makes Costco's Kirkland Signature Brand Bacon?

There are a lot of reasons to love Costco, from the $1.50 hot dog meal to great deals on new tires, but the engine that really runs the warehouse giant is its Kirkland Signature line of products. From toilet paper to tequila, you can get almost anything with the Kirkland name on it, and it's no secret that a lot of those items are made by big-name brands — including bacon, which is likely made by Smithfield.

Guessing the big companies behind Kirkland-branded products is a major pastime for internet sleuths and fans of the big-box warehouse. While some brands are open about their partnerships, lots of other items are shrouded in a bit of mystery. Unlike Costco's $4.99 rotisserie chickens, Kirkland Signature bacon isn't something Costco produces in-house, so there has to be another brand working behind the scenes. Smithfield seems to be the most likely producer, especially since another large competitor, Hormel, has denied that it makes the house-brand bacon.

For many years, it was believed that Kirkland bacon was made by Hormel, mostly because the two companies had a line of co-branded, pre-cooked bacon. Apparently, that didn't carry over to the raw, packaged bacon section, because Hormel has since shot that theory down. The next likely candidate, then, is Smithfield, which is one of the biggest suppliers of private-label bacon for stores like Target and Kroger. In fact, Allrecipes estimates that Costco sources at least 75 to 80% of its bacon from Smithfield.

That figure doesn't account for all of Costco's bacon, of course, and the truth is that the company probably works with multiple sources around the country depending on its supply chain and customer demand. Since bacon is a perishable product and the meat industry is a little unpredictable, some packages of Kirkland bacon could be made by a regional producer. Also, neither Costco nor Smithfield has officially confirmed a partnership, so it's still just speculation. But since there's a good chance you could be getting Smithfield bacon at a Kirkland price, it might be worth giving the store-brand stuff a try — whether you're making a bacon and basil-wrapped shrimp recipe or cooking up a batch of smoky bacon mac and cheese.