Costco Has Seen Butter Days After Recall

What would you do with 80,000 pounds of butter? The possibilities are endless! You could fill a swimming pool with it and dive in, although it might take a while to get out and you’d have some explaining to do if it wasn’t your pool. You could go on a baking spree that would keep you occupied until Christmas. You could sculpt 132 cows for Iowa’s State Fair. However, there’s one thing you can’t do with butter, and that’s buy it at Costco after a recent recall.

Why, might you ask, did the megastore recall 400 tons of butter? Some kind of food-borne illness perhaps? A semi truck carrying it ran into another semi full of syrup, creating the most delicious accident ever? Nope! It turns out it was recalled because the spread didn’t contain a warning that it contains milk.

Now maybe not everyone is aware that butter is made almost entirely of milk or cream (which is also a milk product), but for the majority of people that consume it, it’s basic knowledge. It’s as obvious as knowing that hamburger is made from ham, sweetbreads are made of bread, and ladyfingers should be illegal. That being said, the FDA stepped in because butter can be an allergen. The initial October recall stated that the Kirkland Signature Sweet Cream butter contained an “unclaimed allergen.” That allergen, of course, was milk, and while the ingredients included “cream,” there was no allergy warning that said “contains milk.”

We understand. There’s enough people that are lactose intolerant in the world. If you’re allergic to dairy products, you may want to steer clear of certain things. One is cow tipping, because cows know how to play the long game and they’ll remember. Another is avoiding dairy altogether, which can best be done by stopping one aisle short of it in a supermarket. In the recall, which just reached the public last week, it states that milk “accounts for most serious allergic reactions in the United States.” But using or eating butter when you’re lactose intolerant is a fool’s game, like eating a vegetarian burger and asking for bacon on it. 

There are some positives about this story. One is that, at least so far, there have been no injuries reported as a result of Costco’s oversight. Another is that the recall has initially been relegated to Texas, which isn’t particularly good news for them, but is encouraging for the other 49 states. The real winner in this whole debacle is margarine, since it’s made from vegetable oil and doesn’t need a pesky disclaimer. If you really want to get in the weeds and enjoy reading dry government-ese, the FDA report is here.