You know the smell. That warm, salty, golden-brown rotisserie waft that hits you the second you walk past the deli counter at Costco. It’s practically engineered to make you grab one on impulse. But that $4.99 bird — the one 157 million people bought last year — is suddenly the subject of not one, but two class-action lawsuits. And the reasons are messier than you’d expect.
What kicked this whole thing off?
On January 22, two women in California filed a proposed class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. Their complaint? Costco’s Kirkland Signature Seasoned Rotisserie Chicken was marketed as containing “no preservatives” — but allegedly contains two of them. The big white signs near the rotisserie section told shoppers the chicken was free of gluten, MSG, preservatives, and artificial flavors or colors. According to the lawsuit filed in California, that wasn’t the full story.
The two ingredients at the center of it all
The complaint specifically names sodium phosphate and carrageenan. Sodium phosphate controls pH levels and slows fat oxidation, which helps keep food from spoiling as quickly. That sounds a lot like a preservative. Carrageenan, meanwhile, is a thickening agent derived from seaweed. According to WebMD, it’s commonly used as a preservative — and it has zero nutritional value. Both were listed on the chicken’s packaging, but only in small print on the back. The plaintiffs argue that fine-print disclosure doesn’t cancel out a big sign screaming “no preservatives” right above the warming display.
So did Costco admit anything?
Not exactly. But they did act fast. In a statement provided to USA TODAY on January 28, Costco said it removed the preservative-free claims from both in-store signage and its website. The company framed the ingredients differently than the lawsuit does, saying they “use carrageenan and sodium phosphate to support moisture retention, texture, and product consistency during cooking.” They also noted that both ingredients are approved by food safety authorities. That’s technically true. But the lawsuit isn’t really about safety — it’s about honesty in advertising.
Wait, there’s a second lawsuit?
Yep. Just weeks after the preservative case hit, a second lawsuit was filed in Seattle. This one is about something completely different — salmonella. The complaint cites findings from Farm Forward, an animal rights nonprofit that published a study in December. According to that report, Costco’s Lincoln Premium Poultry facility in Fremont, Nebraska, “consistently fails” USDA safety standards. Their testing found that more than 1 in 10 whole birds and 1 in 6 packages of chicken breast tested positive for salmonella at the plant. That’s a much scarier allegation than misleading labels.
How many people could be affected?
The preservative lawsuit seeks to include anyone in the United States who has purchased a Costco rotisserie chicken. That’s an enormous potential class. The attorneys are also requesting a subclass specifically for California buyers. The salmonella lawsuit goes back even further — it seeks damages for anyone who bought Kirkland Signature rotisserie chicken or raw chicken parts since 2019. Given that Costco sold more than 157 million rotisserie chickens globally last year alone, the scope of both cases is massive. And neither has been certified by a court yet, so we’re still in the early stages.
The “tens of millions” claim
The preservative lawsuit doesn’t hold back with its language. The complaint accuses Costco of having “systemically cheated customers out of tens — if not hundreds — of millions of dollars” through false advertising. That’s a big swing. The argument is that customers either wouldn’t have bought the chicken at all or wouldn’t have paid the price they did if they’d known about the preservatives. The plaintiffs are requesting unspecified monetary damages, meaning the actual dollar amount hasn’t been determined. Courts will have to sort out whether the “no preservatives” claim actually influenced purchasing decisions in a meaningful, measurable way.
Are these ingredients actually dangerous?
Here’s the thing — both sodium phosphate and carrageenan are approved by food safety authorities and appear in tons of processed foods. You’ll find them in deli meats, ice cream, infant formula, and plant-based milks. The FDA hasn’t flagged either one as harmful at levels typically found in food. So this isn’t really a health scare in the traditional sense. The legal question isn’t “are these ingredients safe to eat?” It’s “did Costco lie about what’s in the chicken?” Those are two very different conversations, and the lawsuit is squarely focused on the second one.
The salmonella angle is harder to dismiss
While the preservative case is essentially a labeling fight, the second lawsuit raises food safety concerns that feel more urgent. Salmonella causes roughly 1.35 million infections in the U.S. every year, according to the CDC. If the Farm Forward study’s numbers hold up — 1 in 10 whole birds testing positive — that’s a problem that goes beyond marketing language. Neither Costco nor the Nebraska poultry facility responded to Reuters’ requests for comment on that lawsuit. The silence isn’t necessarily an admission, but it’s notable.
Would the plaintiffs even stop buying the chicken?
This is maybe my favorite detail in the whole story. Both plaintiffs in the preservative lawsuit said they plan to keep buying Costco’s rotisserie chicken. One of them added a caveat — she said she “cannot rely on Costco’s preservative-related representations for the product unless those representations are accurate and consistent with the product’s ingredients.” Which is a very lawyer-y way of saying: I love the chicken, just stop lying about what’s in it. It’s the kind of thing that undercuts the dramatic tone of the lawsuit a little bit, but also makes it oddly relatable. We’ve all felt that way about something we buy.
Costco’s chicken has had a weird couple of years
These lawsuits aren’t the first time the rotisserie chicken has attracted controversy. Costco switched from plastic clamshell containers to bags in 2024, which divided shoppers. Some people complained the bags leaked. Others thought the chickens looked smaller. And the company has been questioned before about its poultry supply chain — particularly the vertically integrated operation in Nebraska, where Costco raises its own chickens to keep costs low. That $4.99 price point has remained unchanged for years, even as food prices climbed sharply. Keeping that price steady requires tight control over production, and tight control sometimes means cutting corners — or at least raising questions about whether corners are being cut.
What happens next?
Both lawsuits are still in the “proposed” stage. That means a court hasn’t certified either one as an official class action yet. If they do get certified, the cases could drag on for months or even years. Costco’s quick move to pull the “no preservatives” signage suggests the company knows the labeling claim was, at best, debatable. But removing a sign isn’t the same as settling a lawsuit. The preservative case involves alleged violations of consumer protection laws in both California and Washington state, where Costco is headquartered. The salmonella case is filed in Seattle and involves broader food safety standards. Both are worth watching — especially if you’re one of the millions of people who grab a warm bird off the rack every week.
So that golden-brown chicken you smell walking through Costco? It’s still $4.99. It’s still warm. It’s still ridiculously popular. But there are now some uncomfortable questions hanging over it — about what’s really inside and whether the company was upfront about it. For most shoppers, nothing will change. For Costco’s legal team, though, this is about to get very expensive.
