The Worst Recalls To Hit Costco In 2025, So Far

All supermarkets face recalls sooner or later, and Costco is no exception. The bulk retailer has needed to deal with a large number of haunting recalls during its operation, and as you might expect, thanks to the very nature of its business model, it's often forced to chase down a lot of stock. 2025 has been a particularly busy year in the Costco recall department, too; over the year, it's needed to warn its customers about products that could contain Listeria and botulism bacteria, products which have been labeled incorrectly and therefore pose an allergen risk, and products that could literally explode in people's kitchens. Needless to say, these folks have been working hard.

In Costco's defense, a lot of its recalls haven't directly concerned its name-brand products. While a few Kirkland Signature items had to be recalled throughout 2025, a lot of its recalls concerned foods from big brands like Ritz and Jimmy Dean. That's no reason for Costco to take them less seriously, though — especially when these recalls concerned large amounts of product or caused customers to become ill. Let's take a look at all the storms Costco's had to weather this year.

Although the majority of mass-produced canned food is safe for consumption, now and again a product will pose the potential for serious harm to customers. Costco was reminded of this in full force at the start of 2025, when it discovered that it was stocking canned tuna that could be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that cause botulism. In February, the retailer was involved in a wide-scale recall of tuna produced by Tri-Union Seafoods, and Costco stores in Georgia and Florida had to try and track down fish sold to its shoppers under the Genova brand name. The issue stemmed from a manufacturing issue with the cans, which caused their easy pull lids to potentially be compromised, thereby allowing contamination by bacteria.

It's good that Tri-Union Seafoods acted when it did, as botulism is no joke. The illness, which is caused by consuming C. botulinum bacteria, can cause serious damage to the nervous system and, in severe cases, result in death. Costco got off relatively lightly here, too: Other retailers like Trader Joe's were forced to recall stock from a wide swathe of states. However, any recall that involves botulism risk is serious, no matter how contained — it was right for Costco to spring into action immediately.

In May 2025, Costco had to deal with a recall that had some pretty tragic consequences. The retailer issued a recall notice for six different pre-prepared items made by Fresh & Ready Foods, including a garlic pesto salad, an egg salad sandwich, and a turkey and cheese croissant,sold in its delis in four different states. It had come to light that these products may have been contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, which has the potential to cause serious illness and death.

Prepared foods in supermarkets are a convenient choice when you don't have the energy to cook, but they can also pose a slightly bigger risk than other items. We dig into prepared sandwiches and salads without cooking or heating them, and therefore don't kill off any bacteria that could be contaminating these items. The chances of becoming sick from ready-made foods are relatively low, but being conscious doesn't stop the risk entirely, as this recall showed. Ten individuals became sick after potentially eating Fresh & Ready products in California and Nevada, and ended up needing to be hospitalized. Sadly, one person died.

Generally speaking, when retailers have to deal with recalls because of bacterial contamination, they involve Listeria, Salmonella, or Clostridium botulinum. Contamination from Pseudomonas bacteria is rarer, but no less important to deal with. In June 2025, Costco sprang into action to recall cases of Topo Chico Mineral Water sold in its stores across Texas and Louisiana. The cases, which had been sold over a span of nine days, were found to potentially contain Pseudomonas.

In the official recall notice issued by Coca-Cola, the company stated that the potential risks from consuming Pseudomonas are "considered to be very low in healthy individuals," and in immunocompromised people it may result in "minor health consequences." Forgive us if we feel as though that's slightly underplaying things. Pseudomonas infection can, in the worst-case scenarios, result in severe illness and even death in people who have weakened immune systems. Even in milder cases, it can create a host of nasty symptoms throughout the entire body, including nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, fever, and abscesses on the skin. It's a good thing that Coca-Cola and Costco acted when they did.

One of the most common causes of recalls is mislabeling, and it's also one of the riskiest issues that retailers have to deal with. Costco found this out yet again in July 2025, when it discovered that it was stocking Ritz Cracker Sandwiches that had been placed in the wrong packaging. Throughout June and July, Costco had stocked Ritz Peanut Butter Cracker Sandwiches that contained individually wrapped packs of the snack, which were contained in foil for the Cheese variety. Mondelēz Global LLC had shipped its incorrectly packaged items in three differently sized boxes and in a 20-count variety pack.

Naturally, this created a huge headache for both Mondelēz and Costco. While the box that contained the wrongly packaged Ritz cracker flavor had allergen information on it, the wrappers inside did not. Therefore, people who had a nut allergy could have potentially opened and eaten these peanut butter cracker sandwiches assuming they were cheese, and then experienced a serious reaction. Plus, because they were sold in bulk, it's more likely that they could have been decanted from the original box and served individually. The fact that these products had been sold for so long without anyone spotting the issue is also pretty concerning.

Dubai Style Chocolate has been all the rage throughout 2025, so it's little surprise that Costco wanted to get in on the action. However, in moving to stock it so quickly, it appears that it may have missed some crucial information on its chosen supplier's packaging that created a subtly serious health risk. Costco had been stocking Rolling Pin Dubai Style Chocolate for almost three months before someone from the manufacturing company realized that the allergen information on its packaging was incorrect. On the back of each pack of chocolate, instead of wheat marked as a potential allergen, gluten was listed. A recall was subsequently issued for the incorrectly labeled product.

Although most people who are allergic to wheat will know to check for gluten, any mislabeling when it comes to allergies is always pretty serious. Allergen information should always be as transparent and comprehensive as possible, and the lack of wheat on the label could make things easier to miss. What's even worse is that this product was sold at Costco for such a long time before anybody spotted the mishap. The good news was that nobody had become ill from eating the chocolate at the time of recall.

The pop of the cork from a Prosecco bottle pretty much always indicates that good times are about to happen, but sometimes, there can be a little too much bang for your buck. Costco customers who purchased Kirkland Signature Prosecco Valdobbiadene found this out in a potentially dramatic way in September 2025, when the retailer issued a recall for bottles sold between April and August of that year. In its recall notice, Costco stated that these bottles were at risk of exploding and therefore posed an immediate risk of harm. Yikes!

The supermarket said that the offending bottles could shatter even when they weren't being handled, and could explode at any time on people's shelves. Although Costco didn't directly produce the Prosecco, and said that any concerns should be directed towards manufacturer Ethica Wines, there's no doubt that it had to do most of the legwork on the recall. It didn't help that Costco had been stocking these faulty bottles in 12 different states, either. It's a shame, because just like Costco's Kirkland Signature champagne, its Prosecco is a great option and is beloved by customers. We could just do with a little less exploding.

A lot of people can be a little squeamish around prepared fish dishes in supermarkets, and to be honest, we kinda get it. Although supermarket fish is normally totally safe to eat, now and again a recall notice gets issued that makes us rethink things. In 2025, that recall notice appeared in September, for Kirkland Signature Fresh Ahi Tuna Wasabi Poke manufactured by Western United Fish Company. The manufacturer had discovered that its poke product may have contained Listeria bacteria, and while no illnesses had been reported at the time of recall, it was clear that it had to act fast.

In fairness, Western United couldn't necessarily be to blame for the quality of the fish itself, which most people would likely assume might contain the Listeria. Instead, the potential contamination was linked to the green onions used in the product, which were provided by a different supplier. That didn't make the risk any less serious, though. For Costco, this recall was especially annoying. While the affected product had only been sold on one business day, it had been stocked in a whopping 33 different states. In total, it had to try and track down roughly 1.6 tons of prepared fish. We think we'll just make our own poke bowl next time.

There's nothing like a frozen corn dog: They're quick, they last for months, and they taste delicious — especially because  it's easy to upgrade your corndogs for some extra pizzazz. Well, most of the time, anyway. In 2025, customers who bought their corn dogs at Costco found that they weren't quite as tasty as they normally were, and posed a risk that they weren't quite expecting. Folks who bought corn dogs that were made both by Jimmy Dean and Foster Farms over the course of almost half the year were delivered recall notices after the companies discovered that people were finding pieces of wood embedded into the products' batter. Both companies were alerted to the issue after multiple people complained, saying that eating the compromised corn dogs had caused injury.

The impact on Costco of this manufacturing issue was pretty big, especially considering that its customers had been buying the products for so long. However, the overall damage to The Hillshire Brands Company (which distributed the Jimmy Dean items) and Foster Farms was even greater. Both companies had to recall millions of pounds of stock, with Hillshire having to track down 29,000 tons of corn dogs. It's pretty amazing that there weren't more injuries, to be honest.