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Transcript: The Curious Comeback of Beef Tallow

 

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You know, it’s kind of wild how things cycle back around, isn’t it?

It really is. What’s on your mind?

Well, beef tallow, for instance. I mean, I remember it being completely uh demonized, right? I mean, because of all the saturated fat stuff.

Oh, absolutely. Persona non grata in the kitchen for decades.

And now suddenly it feels like it’s popping up everywhere again. People are cooking with it, using it on their skin. I’ve even seen like biohackers talking it up.

Yeah, it’s a fascinating resurgence. And the materials you sent over exploring this trend. They really pose a good question which is is this comeback based on you know new science. Or is it more about maybe nostalgia like an ancestral wisdom kind of thing without looking hard at the evidence.

Right. It feels like part of that bigger trend maybe questioning the usual advice looking back to tradition.

Exactly. There seems to be this undercurrent of skepticism towards established health guidelines and the sources you shared really map that out. Tallow wasn’t always the bad guy. It used to be a kitchen staple. Right.

Totally. Think pie crusts frying. McDonald’s used it for their fries.

No way. Really?

Yeah. Up until 1990 gave them that distinctive flavor.

Wow. So what happened?

Well, starting around the 60s, research began linking saturated fats to higher cholesterol levels and you know heart disease risk.

Ah the beginning of the lowfat push.

Precisely. And there was pressure from health advocates campaigns. By 1990 companies like McDonald’s had switched over to vegetable oils.

Oh, okay. But that switch wasn’t exactly straightforward either, was it?

No, not at all. And this is where the story gets well kind of complicated. Some of those early vegetable oil replacements, the partially hydrogenated ones, they turned out to be packed with trans fats, which we later found out were even worse.

Arguably, yes, even more harmful for heart health. So, the initial solution created a whole new problem and honestly, a lot of confusion about fats that we’re still sort of dealing with.

Okay, so trans fats are mostly gone now, thankfully. But what replaced tallow then after the trans fat scare?

Mostly other vegetable oils. Canola, soybean, sunflower, corn oil, that kind of thing.

The ones often marketed as healthier. Cholesterol-free, high in polyunsaturated fats or PUFAs.

Exactly. But now you’ve got this whole counter movement, haven’t you? The anti-seed oil crowd.

Yeah, that’s definitely loud online. What’s their main argument?

Well, they often claim these oils are like ultrarocessed, unstable when you heat them, and potentially inflammatory in the body. It’s a lot to keep track of. So what does the mainstream science say about that debate? Seed oils versus saturated fats like tallow.

Okay, so the general scientific consensus based on, you know, large studies and trials is still that replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats, the kind found in many vegetable oils tends to lower LDL cholesterol, the bad cholesterol, right? And lowering that is linked to a reduced risk of heart disease. So major health bodies generally consider oils like olive oil, canola, soybean oil as safe. even beneficial in moderation.

But what about the inflammation and instability claims?

There’s ongoing research into how these oils behave, especially when heated repeatedly. That’s the oxidation part, but the widespread claims you see online about seed oils being toxic, they don’t really have strong backing from clinical trials in humans.

So, the bottom line for most people is still that these vegetable oils are likely a safer bet than loading up on saturated fats

in the context of a typical Western diet. Yes. That’s generally the conclusion. They remain a safer alternative to routinely using highly saturated fats like tallow or butter for most of your cooking and fat intake.

Okay. So, if the science hasn’t drastically flipped, why is tallow making such a comeback now?

Ah, well, that’s more about culture and marketing. I think you’ve got wellness influencers promoting it as ancestral or natural and the skin care angle. Biocompatible they call it, right? Plus, chefs do genuinely like it for flavor and it’s high smoke point. It doesn’t burn. easily.

So, it cooks well at high temperatures.

Exactly. And social media just amplifies all of this, framing tallow as somehow cleaner or more real than processed seed oils.

It really taps into that desire for simpler stuff. Maybe a rejection of big food industries.

Definitely, there’s a nostalgia factor, a feeling of getting back to basics, but you know, just because something’s old or natural doesn’t automatically make it healthier. We stop doing lots of old things for good reasons.

And crucially, the fundamental science on saturated fat.

Yeah.

It hasn’t really budged, has it?

Not in its core message. The sources you looked at mentioned several big reviews of 2021, 2021, 2023.

Yeah. In major cardiology and medical journals, and they all continue to link high intakes of saturated fat with increased risk of heart disease and related mortality.

But what about that one study, I think it was 2014, that made headlines questioning the link?

Ah, yes, the Annals of Internal Medicine review. It did cause a stir. her, but it also faced significant criticism regarding its methods and conclusions. And importantly, major health organizations didn’t change the recommendations based on it.

So, the advice to limit saturated fat generally below 10% of daily calories still stands.

That’s the standard public health guideline. Yes. And those other claims you sometimes hear, tallow, fixing hormones, clearing skin, boosting mood, there’s just no rigorous scientific evidence backing those specific benefits up.

They’re most mostly anecdotal.

It does make you wonder though, why does it feel like people are more willing now to maybe disregard that scientific consensus?

That’s a huge question. It seems like health decisions are increasingly tied up with identity, maybe ideology, what fits a certain narrative and what algorithms push on social media.

Absolutely. Anecdotes from influencers spread like wildfire much faster than dense peer-reviewed studies. It feels like sometimes the story, the feeling around food becomes more powerful than the research data.

It’s like a preference for narrative over numbers.

You put it that way. And we see similar things happening elsewhere, right?

Like what?

Well, look at the resurgence of raw milk.

Oh, right. Similar arguments there. It’s more natural. Pasteurization destroys nutrients.

Exactly. Despite the very real documented risks of contamination, EC coli, lististeria, salmonella, things pasteurization was designed to prevent.

And now there’s even the worry about H5N1, the bird flu showing up in dairy herds, the FDA and CDC are warning against raw milk because of it.

Yet sales are apparently increasing in some areas driven by that same natural is better anti-establishment ethos.

It really highlights that tension, doesn’t it? The appeal of tradition versus the progress of science.

It does. It’s this sort of cultural yearning for simplicity, for a perceived lost purity.

But history isn’t always a reliable guide for health.

Precisely.

We should absolutely question our modern food system, but we also need to critically examine older practice. ices. Were they really better or just what people did before we knew more?

So, wrapping this up, the beef tallow comeback seems well less about a scientific evolution and more about culture.

I think that’s a fair assessment. It’s a cultural phenomenon, tapping into nostalgia and current anxieties about processed food much more than it is a scientifically validated health shift.

The comfort food aspect is strong, but the science on saturated fat and heart health, that story hasn’t fundamentally changed.

That remains the consistent message for major health organizations based on decades of research.

So maybe the final thought for you listening is this. When you’re making choices about food, about your health, what’s really guiding you?

Yeah. Is it the weight of the scientific evidence carefully gathered over time? Or is it more the emotional pull, the story, the allure of something that feels simpler or perhaps rebellious?

Definitely something worth chewing on as these trends continue.

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The Curious Comeback of Beef Tallow

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In today’s health and wellness landscape, irony abounds: the very ingredients we once moved away from in the name of public health are now being resurrected under the banners of “ancestral wisdom” and “natural living.” One of the most recent examples? Beef tallow—an animal fat once demonized for its saturated fat content—is now enjoying a renaissance in cooking, skincare, and even biohacking.

This isn’t just about cooking with oil. It’s part of a broader philosophical divide. As institutional trust declines, many are turning to tradition and nature for guidance—assuming, sometimes wrongly, that these values offer more than modern science.

This mindset underlies trends ranging from the carnivore diet to raw milk to—you guessed it—deep-frying your potatoes in rendered cow fat.

So how did we get here? And are we forgetting why we left tallow behind in the first place?

What Is Beef Tallow, Really?

Beef tallow is rendered fat from cows, usually taken from suet (the hard fat around the kidneys and loins). Once rendered, it becomes a solid white fat at room temperature with a high smoke point (~400°F) and long shelf life.

Nutritionally, tallow is roughly:

  • 50% saturated fat
  • 42% monounsaturated fat
  • 4% polyunsaturated fat

That saturated fat content is what continues to concern medical experts—and why tallow never really left the “limit or restrict” category of most dietary guidelines. This type of fat is not limited to beef; you can buy cage-free duck fat, goose fat, bison fat, pork lard, and even pasture-raised leaf lard.  Given the health concerns surrounding saturated fats, it’s surprising to see this beef tallow trend gaining popularity.

From Kitchen Staple to Health Scapegoat

For much of the 20th century, beef tallow was a kitchen essential. It was added to many household staples, from pie crusts and French fries to candles and soaps.

Up until 1990, McDonald’s famously used it to fry their iconic golden fries—one of the secrets behind their distinctive flavor.

But beginning in the 1960s, public health campaigns began to target saturated fats. Emerging research linked them to elevated cholesterol and a growing epidemic of heart disease.

By 1990, under pressure from health advocates like Phil Sokolof, McDonald’s and other major food companies swapped tallow for 100% vegetable oil.

Ironically, this shift created new problems.

Many of the replacement oils—particularly those partially hydrogenated—were loaded with trans fats, which turned out to be even more harmful than the saturated fats they replaced.

Though trans fats have since been banned, everywhere, the transition left a legacy of confusion and controversy about fats in general. Tallow disappeared from the mainstream—but questions about what should replace it have lingered ever since.

What Replaced Tallow…and is it Any Better?

After tallow fell out of favor, vegetable oils like canola, soybean, sunflower, safflower, and corn oil became the default fats for cooking. Marketed as cholesterol-free and high in polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs), they were touted as heart-healthy alternatives to animal fats.

But their rise has not been without criticism. A growing anti-seed-oil movement argues that these oils are ultra-processed, unstable at high heat, and potentially inflammatory. These claims have spread rapidly on social media, but what does the science actually show?

  • Replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats has consistently been shown to lower LDL cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease in randomized controlled trials.
  • Oils like olive, canola, and soybean are considered safe and beneficial by major health organizations when used in moderation and not overheated.
  • Concerns around processing and inflammation remain under investigation, but widespread claims of seed oil toxicity are not supported by clinical research.

They remain a safer alternative to highly saturated animal fats like tallow in most dietary contexts.

At Dirt to Dinner, we recognize that the conversation around seed oils is far from settled—and often distorted by ideology or social media. That’s why we dove deeper into the production, processing, and health implications of seed oils in our recent article. Our goal: to provide clear, science-backed information that helps you make informed choices in the kitchen and beyond.

Trend or Truth?

Despite its fall from favor due to cardiovascular concerns, beef tallow is making a cultural comeback driven in part by wellness influencers that touting its “ancestral” appeal, skincare brands highlighting its “biocompatibility,” and chefs praising its flavor and high smoke point.

Social media has played a major role in reviving its popularity, often presenting it as a cleaner, more “natural” alternative to seed oils.

This trend is part nostalgia, part rebellion. As more consumers question industrial agriculture and hyper-processed ingredients, old-school fats like tallow feel refreshingly simple and back-to-basics.

But simplicity doesn’t always equal safety.

Have We Stopped Listening to Science?

Despite claims that saturated fat has been wrongly vilified, the broader scientific consensus still points in one direction.

A 2020 meta-analysis in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology reaffirmed that replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat significantly lowers heart disease risk. A 2021 review in Circulation called the evidence “strong and consistent.” And a 2023 study in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe found that high saturated fat intake—like that from tallow—was associated with increased rates of ischemic heart disease and all-cause mortality, even when accounting for lifestyle differences.

Some tallow proponents cite smaller or conflicting studies, including a 2014 review in Annals of Internal Medicine that questioned saturated fat’s role in heart disease. But this paper has been widely criticized for methodological flaws, and major health bodies have not shifted their recommendations: saturated fat intake should remain below 10% of total calories, or less than four teaspoons if you’re on a 2,000 daily calorie diet.

Meanwhile, claims that beef tallow supports hormone health, clears skin, or improves mood remain anecdotal and unsupported by rigorous clinical research. As always, personal testimonials are not scientific evidence—no matter how viral they go.

Why We’re Falling for it Again

What’s changed isn’t the science, but our willingness to listen to it. Today, health decisions are often driven by identity, ideology, and social media algorithms rather than evidence.

When a wellness influencer posts that switching to tallow healed their hormones, the message spreads faster than any peer-reviewed study ever could.

As we’ve explored in previous articles at Dirt to Dinner, this is part of a larger pattern: the replacement of research with narrative, and of science with sentiment. It’s not unique to beef tallow—it’s also happening with raw milk despite CDC recommendations, especially in light of Avian flu’s rapid spread.

The Raw Milk Parallel

Raw milk, like tallow, has been rebranded as a wholesome, traditional staple. Advocates claim it offers enzymes, beneficial bacteria, and nutrients lost in pasteurization.  These benefits can easily be found elsewhere in one’s diet.

The nostalgia might come from some of us who have drank milk immediately from the cow.  That is better because the bacteria hasn’t had a chance to proliferate.

But public health experts remain clear: raw milk carries a significant risk of contamination, including E. coli, Listeria, and Salmonella. And in 2024 and 2025, there’s a new concern—H5N1 bird flu, which has been detected in U.S. dairy herds. The FDA and CDC have strongly warned against consuming raw milk amid the outbreak.

Still, sales are up—driven by the same “natural is better” ethos fueling beef tallow’s rise.

Nostalgia is Not Nutrition

The return of beef tallow—and raw milk—isn’t just a health trend. It reflects a broader cultural yearning for simplicity, self-sufficiency, and “lost wisdom.” But tradition isn’t inherently trustworthy. Many past practices were abandoned not out of ignorance, but because we learned better through rigorous study, hard data, and public health progress.

There’s nothing wrong with questioning the modern food system. But before embracing the old ways, we should ask: were they better—or just familiar?

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Are seed oils bad for you?

Is the oil in your salad dressing damaging your health? Seed oils…you find them everywhere: in your kitchen cupboard, in restaurants, and in most processed foods. Otherwise known as vegetable oils such as soybeans, sunflower, canola, and peanut, these hapless seeds have been touted as a contributor to all diseases.

“[The industry is] poisoning us with seed oils – these industrial fats are one of the greatest drivers of chronic disease in America today.”

– Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services

Are Oilseeds to Blame?

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services, has rightly pointed to American health as an issue. Over 50% of U.S. population has either cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, or Alzheimer’s Disease.

Are seed oils to blame or is it the lack of nutrition in American diets?  RFK would like everyone using beef tallow as their cooking oil of choice because it has less omega-6 fatty acids. However, these types of fats — saturated fats — have concerns of their own. For instance, too many saturated fats can raise both the good (HDL) and bad (LDL) cholesterol, including triglycerides that increase the size and amount of LDL cholesterol. They actually stick to the LDL as it is moving through your blood, leading to plaque in the arteries.

So which fat should we choose? Let’s unpack this a bit by looking at the larger picture…

The global population consumes a lot of fat: 218 million metric tons of vegetable oils each year. If you were to put it all in a train, it would go 83% around the Earth’s circumference. As for Americans, we consume 100 pounds of oil per person…per year.

China, India, and the United States are the top three consumers. The United States and China eat mostly soybean and canola oil while Indian diets are more varied with coconut, safflower, and mustard oil.

If the United States were to replace all seed oils with beef tallow or lard, there is only about 5% of supply to fulfill the oil demand. Used for thousands of years, are we just now finding out that seed oils should be avoided?

The State of Health in the U.S.

RFK is right: so many Americans are unhealthy.

When you look at pictures from the 1950s, there were very few obese people! Today, it’s a very different story.

According to the American Heart Association’s 2025 Statistics Update:

  • Nearly 47% of U.S. adults have high blood pressure.
  • More than 72% of U.S. adults have unhealthy weight (currently defined as body mass index ≥25, with nearly 42% having obesity (currently defined as body mass index ≥30).
  • More than half of U.S. adults (57%) have type 2 diabetes or prediabetes.
  • As many as 40% of U.S. children have an unhealthy weight (currently defined as body mass index ≥85th percentile), with 20% having obesity (currently defined as ≥95th percentile).
  • Nearly 60% of adults globally have an unhealthy weight.

The news is dismal for sure.  But can we really blame cooking oils? What about lifestyle? Healthy habits such as sleep, exercise, and a good diet are critical. How many people really eat five to seven servings of fruits and vegetables a day? Do people eat close to their ideal body weight in grams of protein? Is sugar prevalent?  There are so many factors involved in one’s health.

What do medical organizations say?

Many medical organizations are in complete support of cooking with seed oils. American Heart Association, World Health Organization, Harvard Health, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Institute of Medicine, International Food Information Council all discuss the importance of diets which include both omega-6 and omega-3s. All of these organizations, plus more, cite research including randomized controlled trials, peer reviewed studies, and observational studies supporting seed oils. Why?

Seed oils offer a wide range of nutritional benefits:

Healthy Fats: Seed oils contain healthy unsaturated fats such as omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids improve HDL (good) cholesterol, reduce inflammation, promote cell growth, and support brain health. Our bodies need these essential fatty acids since we can’t make organically them. Therefore, these fats must be brought in via our diet. Specific healthy fats include:

  • Monounsaturated fats help lower triglycerides in the blood and lower the risk of heart disease.
  • Polyunsaturated fats lower LDL (bad) cholesterol, triglycerides, raise HDL (good) cholesterol and help control blood sugar.

Protein: Seed oils are a source of plant-based protein. Plant protein is associated with anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anti-diabetic, and antioxidant properties. Though, to be fair, they are incomplete because they are missing one or more of the 22 amino acids which are the building blocks of protein.

Fiber: Oilseeds contribute to dietary fiber intake, which aids in digestion, promotes satiety, and helps regulate blood sugar levels.

Vitamins and Minerals: Many seed oils contain various vitamins and minerals, including vitamin E, an antioxidant that protects cells from damage, and magnesium, which plays a role in many bodily functions.

Bioactive Compounds: Seed oils are a source of bioactive compounds, such as lignans and phenolic compounds, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and may offer protection against chronic diseases as well as arthritis and rheumatism. Depending upon the seed, they contain DHEA, a pre-hormone compound that converts to testosterone and estrogen.

Milk Production: Using soybeans as an animal feed impacts the milk quality by improving the fatty acid compensation and amount in the milk.

On the other hand…

Despite their nutritional benefits and help with cooking, Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Casey Means, and Robert F. Kennedy have all taken a stand against seed oils. Their reasons are many:

  • They have a high level of Omega 6s, causing an imbalance in one’s diet
  • Processing includes two chemicals: hexane and deodorizers to pull the oil out of the oil and meal.
  • They’re grown with glyphosate, and it follows the oilseed path from the crop to the oil and ultimately to the food
  • While cooking, the oil’s oxidation process causes free radicals in your body, thus causing cancer.

Let’s take these apart…

Omega 3 & Omega 6 Fatty Acids

The omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid balance is important as we need both healthy fats. The excess of omega 6s is not the problem; the issue is the balance of omega 3s in one’s diet.  Most Americans just don’t eat enough foods with omega 3s.

Omega 6s provide energy for you to manage your daily activities. They help regulate inflammation, support cognitive health, promote skin and hair health, support white blood cell production, and produce certain hormones such as progesterone and testosterone.

Your body doesn’t make these so you need to find them in eggs, soybean, corn, sunflower oils, almonds, cashews, and walnuts.

Omega 3s are polyunsaturated fats that your body cannot make on its own.  You need it for your heart health, mental health, infant brain development, and to fight inflammation. By not eating enough, you might be more susceptible to chronic diseases.

A diet with oily fish, walnuts, soybeans, chia seeds, eggs, meat, spinach, and brussels sprouts will keep your omega 3s going strong.

You need both omega 3s and 6s.  We spoke to David Dzisiak, COO at Botaneco Inc. He has worked with medical and health opinion leaders on the health impacts of various fatty acid profiles, including omega 3s, omega 6s, omega 9s, saturated fats and trans fats.  He stressed the following:

“There is no medical evidence that eating soybean oil or canola oil is a causative for heart health.  There is no smoking gun anywhere that says our 6:3 ratio is an issue.  So it is important to eat omega 6s and omega 3s as part of a healthy diet.”

– David Dzisiak, COO at Botaneco

Seed Oil Processing Concerns

This is the chemical process that, understandably, makes headlines – and raises eyebrows.

Hexane

Yes, hexane is a solvent derived from petroleum. But no, it’s not hanging around in your cooking oil. Hexane is used to separate the oil from the seed. The hexane evaporates off and there is virtually no residual amount left in the oil. The European Union states that a residual level of 1 mg/kg is safe. However, since the FDA does not regulate hexane residue, there is suspicion that some remains.

We asked Willie Loh, Ph.D., Board Member at Yield10 Bioscience, Inc, what he thought about hexane residue:

“After the processing, there is no hexane left. A soybean seed contains 19-20% oil.  To extract the oil, the seeds are pressed, flooded with hexane, and the oil washes out. Then the temperature is raised to evaporate all hexane.”

Deodorizing

This process sounds scary, as well.  Deodorizing simply uses steam and high pressure to strip away volatile compounds that cause off-smells and reduce shelf life. No bleach. No mystery chemicals. Just water vapor doing a cleanup job, so your oil doesn’t go rancid a week after you open it. This is steam and water.  That is it.

Glyphosate

Glyphosate is used in GMO crops to keep the weeds at bay and not harm the crop. There can be a trace amount of residue because the plant absorbs a scant amount glyphosate after spraying. The EPA has established tolerances for glyphosates in many different commodities, including
oilseeds.

In addition, since humans do not have a shikimic pathway, as plants do, our bodies flush these trace amounts through via our urine.  For more information, we wrote about glyphosate in March 2025.

Dr. Loh explained that, “there is no detectible glyphosate left in a soybean seed, long before you start to process. Glyphosate is a molecule that doesn’t last very long. Some gets to the plant and some to the soil but it degrades rather quickly.”

It’s All About the Smoke Point

Walk down the grocery aisle and you will see multiple cooking oils. Everything from avocado oil to soybean oil to flaxseed oil. But which one to choose for scrambled eggs or a salmon dinner?

Using the wrong oil for the wrong temperature can produce a smoke point which shows the oil is too hot and is approaching dangerous thermal stages. Basically producing free radicals such as carcinogenic compounds like aldehydes and peroxides. This also leads to rancid oil – which certainly does not add to the flavor of your meal.

David Dzisiak explained further, “If you bought a box of cheerios or a bag of chips and it smells rancid, this means the oil has oxidized.  Air causes them to react and so they break down and turn into fatty acid and different molecules.  So when you deep-fry, that oil oxidizes and produces free radicals.  That would happen with any oil.”

In this case, RFK, might be correct.  However, you can control the smoke point by using the correct oil for cooking.  Here is a chart of which oils to use for which temperatures.

A Well-Rounded Perspective on Health

Blaming seed oils for America’s health crisis is an oversimplification. Dr. Loh put this in perspective:

“We are not cave dwellers or hunter & gatherers anymore, walking 15 miles a day with no access to refined sugar and video games. We eat far more oxidized fats than we have for hundreds of years because of convenience foods. Everything in a super aisle has a shelf life of 6 months to a year. It is all about convenience.”

Human health is shaped by countless factors—diet, exercise, sleep, stress, genetics, and access to care, to name a few.  And we need to keep each of these factors in balance to live a long, healthy life.

 

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What’s in Costco’s Secret Sauce?

Walk into any Costco warehouse, and you’re greeted by towering pallets and the familiar hum of discovery. As you navigate the wide aisles, one name stands out again and again: Kirkland Signature.

From coffee beans to baby wipes, and meats to athletic wear, that red, white, and black logo seems omnipresent. But have you ever stopped to wonder what’s really behind that label? We were fortunate enough to speak with an insider to find out — a former food buyer with a 30-year career with Costco. Let’s peek beyond the towering aisles to see what she has to share.

What is Kirkland Signature?

It’s not your typical generic store brand.

Kirkland Signature is the culmination of a meticulous, quality-obsessed journey that involves dedicated buyers, savvy consumers, and some surprisingly big names in the industry.

And they replicate it among their 890 stores worldwide while still meeting the demands of the local markets it serves all the while maintaining its top trusted brand status.

Kirkland Signature isn’t just successful –  it’s a behemoth, reportedly the “largest consumer packaged brand in the world.”

Not only does this line of products account for about 25% of Costco’s revenues, but its sales outpace giants like Campbell’s, Hershey’s, and Kellogg’s — combined. All the while maintaining smaller margins than your local supermarket.

A Food Buyer’s Journey

So, how does this happen? It starts with Costco’s food buyers, just like the one we spoke with. She started her career overseeing 12 Costco locations, which then grew to managing food purchasing decisions for a whopping 59 locations across California and Hawaii.

Her Costco career path was a culinary adventure, beginning with candy and sundries; moving to pet food; then beer, and wine; the freezer section (where she tasted lasagna every week for six months before finding ‘the one’); and then the refrigerated section before moving back to candy, with the addition of snacks and healthier-for-you items.

Her experience, like other buyers, gave her insights into consumer spending and food trends. She was the first to introduce trending products such as organic juices and Greek yogurts. She saw the potential with Harmless Harvest Coconut Water, Country Archer Jerky, and RXBars. Eventually some of these continued to earn the coveted Kirkland Signature badge.

All buyers are required to be problem solvers. When protein bars weren’t selling well because the pharmacy department selected and managed the products, our buyer — armed with a newly acquired nutrition degree — took over, moved it to the packaged foods section. She then proceeded to revitalize the category to top-seller status, ensuring all Costco warehouses across the country follow suit.

It’s a place where commitments matter, backed by thorough contracts, high standards, and where values and family ties run deep.

In fact, our buyer’s son, daughter-in-law, and even grandkids work there. And guess where the son and daughter-in-law met? During a pizza-making class on their first day at work. And there’s another Costco-initiated family wedding in the works, too.

The Kirkland Gauntlet: Earning the Signature

What happens when a food buyer has a gap to fill, a trend to introduce, or an amazing product to bring in? With Costco’s unparalleled demand for quality, it’s never as simple as just placing an order.

The first step is the easy part: the taste test. Buyers bring in samples, taste them, and then discuss findings in bi-weekly conferences with their fellow regional buyers. If there’s interest, they might split a pallet to test its sales within their stores.

Once a product gets the initial green light for the coveted Kirkland Signature label, it faces a rigorous benchmarking process. It must meet or exceed the quality of the leading national brands. If it can do that and offer better value, it’s in the running.

This commitment to quality resonates deeply with consumers, who pay a premium to access these stores. So why do people trust Kirkland Signature just as much as national brands? It boils down to several factors:

  • Reputation & Consistency: Costco has built trust over time by consistently delivering quality. People know what to expect.
  • Quality & Value: The brand delivers on the promise of high quality at a lower price, a crucial factor, especially when wallets feel tighter.
  • Transparency & Ethics: Consumers appreciate Costco’s straightforward pricing and ethical practices, trusting that they aren’t being unduly gouged or supporting companies with poor labor practices. Increasingly, ethical sourcing and corporate social responsibility matter, especially to younger shoppers.

Big Names Behind the Label

Here’s where things get really interesting. How does Costco achieve that national-brand-beating quality? Often, by partnering with those very same partners. And many of those same brands are right there on the same shelf, buddied up with their Kirkland Signature counterpart.

The idea is simple:

If a Kirkland Signature product is going to sit on the shelf alongside established names, it has to prove its worth in both performance and quality.

Most retailers fear product cannibalization, but Costco leans into it. Every Kirkland Signature product must be better than its name-brand cohort and at a lower price. What makes these partnerships unique versus other store brands is that these aren’t just co-branding exercises. Often, the Kirkland version is a unique formulation, like a specific Starbucks coffee blend developed exclusively for Costco.

With this strategy, Costco gets top-tier manufacturing expertise without the capital expense, and the partner brands gain access to Costco’s massive, loyal membership base and huge volume orders.

Costco’s Kirkland Signature partnerships are a win-win situation that reinforces Costco’s reputation as a provider of premium products at competitive prices.

But do you still prefer Smithfield-branded pork products, even though the “Kirkland Signature” version is made by the same producer? No worries…just look at the branded product right next to it. But buyer beware: get ready to shell out more bacon at checkout.

The Quality Police: Audits, Inspections, and Non-Negotiables

Partnering with big names isn’t enough; maintaining quality requires constant vigilance. Costco’s quality control process is legendary for its rigor, which is why this process can take up to two years before you see a new Kirkland Signature product grace its shelves.

And it doesn’t stop there.

It starts with traceability.

Costco needs to know where everything comes from. Our buyer mentioned sending teams to shrimp farms in Vietnam and coffee plantations in Hawaii and Costa Rica. This extends to pet food, too, where standards are arguably even stricter now, with Costco’s consumer-centric philosophy recognizing pets as family members.

Traceability systems must allow products to be tracked back to their source rapidly, often tested with mock recalls requiring completion within two hours.

Then come the audits.

Costco’s audit team travels directly to manufacturing plants to ensure they meet not only industry regulations but also Costco’s own stringent requirements. Approved certification bodies conduct annual audits. But they don’t stop there; they also perform unannounced inspections to see how things operate daily. They might even send their own people to shadow third-party audits.

Suppliers must meet minimum audit scores for the product’s relevant categories, such as Food Safety or Traceability. Any audit scores falling below a certain threshold necessitate the implementation of a corrective action plan, demonstrating Costco’s commitment to continuous improvement and addressing any identified deficiencies.

Failure to meet standards has real consequences. Our buyer recalled nixing a deal with a bakery found making breadcrumbs in a kiddie swimming pool. Another manufacturer struggled with proper line cleanouts between different flavored granola bars, a critical step to prevent allergen cross-contamination. Issues like inadequate hand-washing areas or unfair wages can also jeopardize a partnership.

Plus regulated food safety inspections.

Beyond physical inspections, suppliers must implement robust food safety systems, like Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) protocols and the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI).

This includes allergen control, regular microbiological testing of the environment and finished products, pest management programs, and often X-ray inspection of finished goods.

Crucially, every ingredient is thoroughly tested before acceptance for nutritional value and potential toxins. This relentless testing ensures safety and contributes to that consistent “signature taste”.

Sealing the deal.

All this is formalized in detailed supplier agreements. These contracts cover everything – product specs, delivery terms, quality standards, ethical sourcing, and pricing. Costco holds the cards; they won’t be bound by supplier terms that deviate from their own, and any changes require a formal written agreement. Suppliers also need to prove they can handle Costco’s massive order volumes.

Costco’s relationship with its suppliers is characterized by a “tough but fair” approach.

The company’s low product offerings and high sales volume give it significant leverage with suppliers.

Sourcing the Globe

Where do the ingredients for Kirkland Signature products come from? Everywhere and anywhere the best quality can be found. While many ingredients are sourced domestically for traceability reasons, Costco goes global when needed.

Organic Lemonade might use lemons from Argentina, Spain, and California, with sugar from South America. Pet food might use potato protein from Germany or chicory root from Belgium. Kirkland Extra Virgin Olive Oil meets international standards and is often sourced from California.

Chocolate involves traceable cocoa beans, often from the Ivory Coast, focusing on sustainability and labor. Tilapia is raised without antibiotics in deep-water reservoirs near the equator by a zero-waste-committed company.

The brand’s philosophy is clear: only the best ingredients will do.

Costco is able to manage these products from all over the globe with its warehouses that play a central role in its distribution network. The company operates centralized warehousing operations to supply its stores, ensuring a smooth flow of goods.

Tackling the Trends

Costco also keeps a close pulse on what its members want. They pay for their annual membership after all, so they should have a say in where their dollars go.

The food buyers assess sales data and gather member feedback to spot trends – organic, gluten-free, keto, pet health, you name it. Their frequent meetings give them the opportunity for idea generation and collaboration to continually be at the forefront of trends, sometimes even before they happen.

For instance, our buyer recalls assessing a particular brand of non-dairy, shelf-stable coffee creamer, one of Costco’s popular office food products. Upon closer examination, she found that this one product was made with dozens of ingredients during a time when consumers started demanding just a few, readily identifiable ingredients listed on a package.

She spent two weeks working directly with the vendor at their plant to reformulate and taste-test what would become their Natural Bliss line. Initially, it didn’t fly off the shelves, but years later, as consumer awareness of ingredients grew, it became a massive hit – a testament to foresight and staying ahead of consumer trends.

Sustainability is also increasingly woven into the fabric of Kirkland Signature. Costco aims for all Kirkland packaging to be recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025, reflecting a commitment to environmental responsibility that resonates with modern consumers.

What about tariffs?

The anticipated tariff increases may prove to be a sourcing test for Costco as consumers look for more ways to stretch their shrinking dollars. Though our buyer had never experienced a period akin to what many of us are expecting, she expects pricing to be less volatile than you’d see in grocery stores.

Source: Mintel

She also reminded us that tariffs have been in place for years. Costco has navigated these ongoing issues with the help of its ironclad contracts, bulk ordering, and pricing expectations.

More Than Just a Label

So, the next time you toss that giant bag of Kirkland Signature trail mix or bottle of olive oil into your cart, take a moment. You’re not just buying a product; you’re buying the result of an intricate dance involving sharp-eyed buyers, global sourcing expeditions, partnerships with industry leaders, relentless quality checks, and a deep understanding of what shoppers truly value.

And that, in a Kirkland Signature nutshell, is the secret to its success.

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Farm Bill for Dummies

What is the Farm Bill?

The Farm Bill is the comprehensive federal legislation that lays out our food and agricultural policies.  Think of it as a blueprint, or rules of the road, for guiding the production of the food consumers here and around the world depend upon.

The Farm Bill dates back to 1933, when in an effort to help farmers devastated during the Great Depression, Congress passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act, providing basic commodity supports. Farm legislation traditionally has been renewed every five to six years, expanding with each bill to cover an ever-wide range of national policy objectives.

What’s in it?

Think of the Farm Bill as a great big bus – with enough seats from everyone from the farm field to the dinner plate, from the American heartland to the most distant export market.

From its initial focus as an economic support plan for farmers, the Farm Bill has grown, pardon the expression, like a weed. The last farm bill, Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018, included 12 separate titles and ran over 800 pages.

From its humble origins, the Farm Bill now lays out a basic blueprint for commodity supports, crop insurance, farm credit, conservation programs, rural development, bioenergy, commodity market regulation, research and extension services, trade promotion, forestry, horticulture, food safety and nutrition – and more.  The table of contents for the last Farm Bill ran 16 pages – longer than the average piece of legislation placed before Congress.

The sheer scope of the legislation makes it one of the most complex and daunting tasks facing Congress.

The number of voices that must be heard in drafting the legislation has grown in lockstep with the bill’s span of goals and objectives. And with each Farm Bill, the task of finding consensus grows more and more demanding. Differences on policies and especially spending priorities have led to simple year-long extensions of the 2018 law.

How much does it cost?

As the Farm Bill has grown in size, so has the price tag. The total five-year tab for the 2018 Farm Bill is estimated at about $428 billion dollars, according to the Congressional Budget Office during the last round of Farm Bill deliberations. That’s about $1,300 for every American over those 5 years, or roughly $260 per person per year.

That number again?

$428,000,000,000

As high as the numbers are, the five-year cost of the Farm Bill remains only 9 percent of the 2025 federal budget – and less than 2 percent of the federal budget on an annual basis.

In fact, it’s a pittance compared to federal spending.  Social Security spending ran about $1.354 trillion in 2023. Healthcare clocked in at $889 billion, Medicare another $848 billion in that year. Our national defense budget hit $820 billion, with another $302 billion for veterans benefits. Even interest on the national debt ($658 Billion) topped the cost of the five-year Farm Bill. Still, nearly a half-trillion taxpayers dollars should garner some attention – and it has.

Where does the money go?

Now before anyone goes all ballistic over how rich this makes the American farmer, let’s take a look behind those numbers.

The latest data from the Economic Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture notes that the overwhelming majority of spending comes through four specific areas (or titles) the bill.

Three are mainstream farmer-oriented program areas – commodity price supports, crop insurance and conservation. These three make up about 23 percent of the total Farm Bill tab.

Where does the rest go? All those other areas cited above – research, regulatory oversight, trade promotion and the like – make up about 1 percent of the bill.

The remaining 76 percent of spending goes to nutrition programs.

Yes, three-quarters of our Farm Bill spending is devoted to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program), and programs such as the National School Lunch Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and others.

Programs authorized through what’s known as mandatory funding aren’t subject to the annual appropriations process in Congress. They are funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation and respond to market conditions and other economic considerations.

Discretionary funding covers programs with a price lid and require specific congressional action to exceed them through additional appropriations. The SNAP program is mandatory funding. As as more people sign on to the program, the costs automatically go up as well.

In other words, it’s very difficult – and maybe politically impossible — to shut off the spigot of taxpayer dollars.

What’s the math for consumers and taxpayers?

As we noted, the average American pays about $260 each year to cover the costs of the 2018 Farm Bill, according to figures from USDA, the CBO and other government sources.  For a family of four, that is just over $1,000 per year.

 If SNAP costs were eliminated from the calculation, those figures drop by almost $200, to roughly $60 per person per year.  For the family of four, the cost would decrease to $210 per year, a reduction of $790. 

If SNAP costs are kept in the Farm Bill, and the projected increases in costs prove true, the average per-person and family of four costs of the farm bill will increase beyond the $260 and $1,000 estimates.

So what’s the holdup on a new Farm Bill?

Congress has made a serious run at a new Farm Bill for more than two years, but with not quite getting over the finish line. The last Farm Bill technically expired during the national tumult surrounding the Covid outbreak, and the transition from a Democrat to Republican administration made agreement among legislators even more difficult. An extension and use of continuing resolutions added to congressional appropriations helped extend the bill.

But plain old politics also contributes to the impasse.

For some time, the rising costs of SNAP flew under the radar as federal spending on health care soared, and overall federal spending expanded at what many consider an alarming rate due to Covid and other factors. But a major debate is nonetheless present over the rising price tag for the Farm Bill, with the SNAP program the primary target for budget-conscious legislators. Questions about the likely need for some form of direct financial assistance for farmers due to the continuing global furor over tariffs and trade also are very much a part of the farm policy debate.

Critics of the SNAP program have floated the idea of separating the program from any new Farm Bill. Such a step would dramatically lower the price tag. But more experienced legislations say the nutrition and food assistance programs are in the bill for a very important reason.

Proponents of keeping SNAP within the bill point to the need to appeal to House and Senate legislators with largely urban and suburban constituents.  Absent the link to SNAP, they warn, there is a risk of push-back from those inexperienced in the importance of solid food and farm policies.

Or to put it more bluntly, there is a risk of Democrats from blue states looking for leverage against Republicans from red states in the Midwest and south. It’s a high-stake game of poker, with the Farm Bill sitting in the center or the table.

In simple terms: don’t be entirely surprised if a new and better Farm Bill remains elusive in 2025.

What will the Farm Bill cost in the future?

The future price tag can’t be accurately estimated at this time, obviously.  There simply are too many uncertainties about the decision to be made by a Congress made up of a high percentage of Farm Bill virgins – that is, legislators who have never before been through the process of crafting omnibus farm legislation. More than one-third of the U.S. Senate is made up of senators elected since the last Farm Bill was passed. In the House, the percentage is almost double – 67 percent.

After two years of frustrating delays in addressing the need for new farm and food legislation, Congressional and Administration leaders pledge their best efforts to see the Farm Bill through to completion in 2025.

The stakes are high.

Farmers need to know the rules of the road, and the policy directions that will shape their planting and marketing plans in an era of economic stress throughout the farm economy.

Consumers need to know that their food is available, safe, nutritious and affordable, which means some clarity in the way plans to reduce staff and funding in various food-related programs and agencies will play out.

Put the taxpayer on that list, too. Simply locking in the existing Farm Bill policies means the price tag for the Farm Bill will continue to escalate.

The world needs to know how reliable the United States can be as a supplier.

The cost of SNAP and comparable food-assistance programs administered by USDA already is estimated to rise to $110 billion in 2025 by the Congressional Budget Office.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) estimated a 10-year continuation of existing law would cost $1.4 trillion, with the SNAP share of the tab rising to 81 percent. CRS pointed out that such spending would be an increase of about $600 million.