It will be hard to find someone in the United States who doesn’t like eating at Costco’s food court. It is cheap; their hot dog and soda combo costs just $1.50—a price that hasn’t changed for decades.
The portions are enormous (compared to the rest of the world), and the food also tastes good.
Not to mention, it is conveniently located before the exit, so after tiring ourselves from walking through Costco, we can just stop and eat before we leave.
But this is a classic example of how giant portion sizes of processed foods in the United States ruin our health.
Let’s dig in and find out why I am saying what I am saying.
Missing Ingredient Info
Let’s start with the fact that Costco does not provide an ingredient list for the menu items. Instead, a sign says,
“Additional nutritional information available upon request.”
Really? Request whom? The employees working in the food court are almost always backed up; I wonder if they would stop everything and go over the ingredients for an item. To be fair, I haven’t tried asking them, though.
With all the hustle and bustle at Costco, customers shouldn’t have to hunt down an employee; nobody has the time for that.
Information should be readily available for people to see and read through themselves.
Costco’s food court menu varies slightly by location, but here’s a breakdown of the common items available at my local Costco (Austin, TX).
For the nutrition information, I will be using MyFoodDiary. (2024). Retrieved December 12, 2024, from MyFoodDiary website: https://www.myfooddiary.com/.
Hot Dog Combo
Let’s start with the hot dog and soda combo, which is very popular among Costco customers.
The company reported selling nearly 200 million hot dog and soda combos in 2023 alone, which is staggering (Treisman, 2024). In June of this year, Costco denied speculation that the price of this combo might change because people got so upset.
The Costco hot dog combo typically includes a 1/4-pound hot dog made from beef and served in a soft, slightly toasted bun.
There is an unlimited condiments station, which usually includes ketchup, mustard, relish, diced onions, and sauerkraut.
A 20-ounce soda is also included, which is available for free refills at most locations and comes with a variety of fountain drink options.
As you can see, this is just the nutrition info for the hot dog with the bun. When you add a soda and some condiments to it, the caloric content can go up to 800+, which would be more than 40% of the DV based on a 2000-calorie diet.
Chicken Bake
Let’s move on to the Chicken Bake, another popular item on the Costco menu.
It is made with chicken breast, bacon, cheese, and Caesar dressing, all wrapped in a crispy dough and baked.
Check out the nutritional info: one serving of this will make you go above your sodium intake for the entire day (115%). It is also high in Saturated Fat (55%) and Cholesterol (37%).
Double Chocolate Chunk Cookie
Now to the desserts. Costco replaced its beloved Churro with a giant double chocolate chunk cookie.
It is a chocolate chip cookie made from butter with a whopping 750 calories for just one cookie.
The cookie is undoubtedly delicious if you eat it warm right there when you buy it, but if you leave it for a few minutes to an hour, it gets tough to bite into.
Replacing the Churro with the cookie was not a good nutritional idea by Costco. The Churro was 570 Calories compared to 750 calories coming from the cookie.
Costco food court is a good example of how value meals, while affordable and convenient, are only sometimes the healthiest choice.
They often provide more calories than we need in a single meal, so we overeat.
Many value meals consist of processed foods overloaded with salt and saturated fats.
I would say, please indulge occasionally and not frequently.
