Costco’s cult‑favorite $4.99 rotisserie chicken is now at the center of a high‑stakes legal fight, with a proposed nationwide class action claiming the bargain birds are tied to chronic Salmonella contamination at a Nebraska processing plant. The complaint points to repeated test failures at Lincoln Premium Poultry in Fremont, Nebraska, and asks for money damages along with a permanent injunction. Costco has already fired back in court papers, disputing the core allegations and setting up what could be a long federal courtroom battle in Seattle.
What the lawsuit says
The case, filed February 12 by shopper Lisa Taylor, alleges that Costco sold Kirkland rotisserie chickens and raw chicken parts sourced in part from Lincoln Premium Poultry despite what the complaint describes as long‑running Salmonella problems. According to ClassAction.org, Taylor seeks compensatory and treble damages and a permanent injunction on behalf of a proposed nationwide class of Costco customers.
The suit leans heavily on a December analysis from Farm Forward, which reports that Lincoln Premium Poultry landed in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s "Category 3" performance band in roughly 92 percent of monthly postings since 2019. That pattern, Taylor argues, should have signaled a material Salmonella risk for shoppers.
Costco's response in court
Costco’s legal team has moved to shut the case down early. In a bid to dismiss the complaint, the company told the court, in arguments reported by The Seattle Times, that the lawsuit gets a basic fact wrong about how the chickens reach customers.
Costco says its rotisserie birds are fully cooked to the USDA‑recommended internal temperature, which public‑health guidance says is designed to kill Salmonella. The company also stresses that the familiar USDA "Grade A" stamp refers only to a bird’s physical condition, not its microbiological safety. Costco has asked the judge to toss the lawsuit, and the court is expected to set a briefing schedule to sort through those arguments.
What 'Category 3' means
Under the Food Safety and Inspection Service system, processing plants are sorted into performance categories based on rolling test results. Category 3 is the trouble zone, indicating that an establishment exceeded FSIS’s allowable Salmonella thresholds during the period in question, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Advocacy groups and watchdogs routinely flag plants that show up in Category 3 month after month, and Farm Forward’s analysis of Lincoln Premium Poultry is a central pillar of Taylor’s case. Those public data points are what the plaintiff cites to argue that Costco should have treated the risk as important enough to disclose.
What shoppers should know
For now, there is no federal recall tied specifically to Costco’s rotisserie chicken. Food‑safety experts continue to say that properly cooked poultry is safe to eat because heating to 165°F destroys the risk from Salmonella, per USDA/FSIS guidance.
The lawsuit, however, targets both the ready‑to‑eat rotisserie birds and raw chicken parts, and raw poultry always carries the usual handling and cross‑contamination risks that home cooks are warned to manage carefully. Legally speaking, the case is still in its early innings. Class certification, discovery and potential appeals mean that a final resolution, whether in Costco’s favor or Taylor’s, could be years away.
Legal stakes
If the case survives Costco’s dismissal bid and ultimately wins class certification, Taylor is asking for sweeping relief. The complaint seeks payments to shoppers, treble damages, and a permanent injunction that could force changes to how Costco labels or sources its chickens, according to ClassAction.org.
Even at this early stage, the rotisserie program is under an unusual microscope. This case, together with a separate preservatives lawsuit filed earlier, has already nudged Costco’s signature chicken into a rare legal spotlight. In the meantime, consumers can monitor FSIS recall notices and keep following standard food‑safety practices while the courts decide how hot this controversy really gets.
