Who makes Kirkland Signature Super Premium Vanilla Ice Cream, 64 fl oz, 2-count?
As of August 1, 2026, the manufacturer of Kirkland Signature Super Premium Vanilla Ice Cream, 64 fl oz, 2-count is Humboldt Creamery (a Crystal Creamery / Foster Farms Dairy brand since 2009), per on-label, first-party, or executive statement evidence.
The common claim
What most answers say — and what the evidence supports
Top-ranking answers name Humboldt Creamery, and the evidence supports them — but nearly all of them rely on one recycled 2006 quote from the creamery's former CEO and miss both the ownership change (Humboldt Creamery has been a Crystal Creamery / Foster Farms Dairy brand since the August 2009 bankruptcy auction that followed a CEO fraud scandal) and the deterministic check that actually ties today's tub to the plant: plant code 06-1187, printed on the tub, resolves to Crystal Creamery Inc. DBA Humboldt Creamery in Fortuna, California on FDA's Interstate Milk Shippers list.
Evidence & sources
Every source is graded on the six-tier rubric and archived, so the citation holds even if the original moves or paywalls. The tier badge grades the source; the status grades our confidence in the maker.
Tier 4
Executive statement directly naming the link. Q&A with Humboldt Creamery CEO Rich Ghilarducci: 'Is Costco's Premium Vanilla Ice Cream made by Humboldt Creamery? Yes, it's in every one of their stores [in] the United States... It all comes out of the plant here at Fernbridge.' Also the origin of the widely recycled quote that Costco 'want[s] all their ice cream in any of their product lines in the United States to come from milk out of Humboldt County.'
Tier 4
Indirect but format-exact, post-ownership-change: plant profile (plant manager Mike Callihan) describes the Fortuna plant's lines filling '64-ounce paper scrounds' for 'a private label customer... who sells a box of two half-gallon packages' — the exact Kirkland Super Premium retail format — without naming Costco. Also documents 'Crystal Creamery bought Humboldt Creamery in 2009,' establishing who holds the contract post-bankruptcy.
Tier 6
Recency corroboration alongside the tier-4 anchor (batteries pattern): documents 'Plant 06-1187' printed on the bottom of the current tub, resolving to Humboldt Creamery. Unlike the same blog's Greek-yogurt claim, the code is actually shown here — it is the current-production link between today's tub and the Fernbridge plant. Registry resolution of the code (corroboration; the IMS row itself never names Kirkland — DECISIONS 2026-07-05): CA Interstate Milk Shippers list carries 'CRYSTAL CRY INC DBA HUMBOLDT CRY, FORTUNA' as plant 06-1187 (https://www.hfpappexternal.fda.gov/scripts/ims/mkex/ims/imssl-pa.cfm?state=CA; archived https://web.archive.org/web/20260705193417/https://www.hfpappexternal.fda.gov/scripts/ims/mkex/ims/imssl-pa.cfm?state=CA). The chain earns tier 3 once the tub code is verified first-hand.
Manufacturer history
The change log is the product. Attributions go stale — most sites never notice when a supplier switches. We date every change, keep the old source, and log it.
| Period | Manufacturer | What the record says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present | Humboldt Creamery (a Crystal Creamery / Foster Farms Dairy brand since 2009)Current | Current attribution — confirmed. See the evidence and fact sentence above. | Evidence ↑ |
| … → August 2009 | Humboldt Creamery Association (farmer-owned cooperative) | The independent co-op made the Kirkland tub from at least November 2006 (CEO interview; start date not publicly confirmed). After CEO Rich Ghilarducci's abrupt February 2009 resignation, a book-cooking scandal that ended in his federal fraud conviction, and Chapter 11, Foster Farms Dairy (Crystal Creamery) bought the assets at the August 2009 bankruptcy auction. The brand, the Fernbridge plant, and — per the 2016 trade profile and the 06-1187 code on current tubs — the Costco production all continued under the new owner. | North Coast Journal ↗ |
Frequently asked
Who makes Kirkland Signature vanilla ice cream?
Did the maker change after Humboldt Creamery's 2009 bankruptcy?
How can I verify who makes it on my own tub?
Is Kirkland Super Premium vanilla the same as Humboldt Creamery brand ice cream?
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