Here's What You Should Know About Costco Canada's 'Blueberry' Bagels

Costco members typically love the store's baked goods, and we're no exception. We once gave its blueberry muffin the highest honor among popular Costco bakery items ranked worst to best. But across the northern border, Canadian Costco shoppers have noticed a disturbing tidbit about the store's "blueberry" bagels — they don't actually contain blueberries. Instead, they're made with an artificial mixture to mimic the tiny fruit's taste. "This dietitian is not buying these blueberry bagels," said Instagram user @nutritionbynaz, who discovered the ingredient while shopping for their children.

Below the "Simulated Blueberry Bagels" product label, the ingredients list describes "simulated blueberries" as containing sugar, corn syrup, corn cereal, cornstarch, palm oil, artificial flavor, brilliant blue FCF, allura red, and fast green FCF. The latter, commonly referred to as Green No. 2, is a banned food dye in the U.S. Brilliant blue FCF and allura red (aka Red 40) are part of a group of six food dyes the FDA is trying to phase out of the U.S. food system by the end of 2026.

"Today I learned you can make fake blueberries," wrote one Facebook user on a post about the bagels in a group geared toward dye-free living. "Why would anyone put that in their body?" another user asked. A third user in the group posted a photo of a blueberry bagel bag they purchased at a U.S. Costco, which listed dried blueberries in lieu of the simulated version.

The Canadian Costco shoppers who discovered the bagels' simulated blueberries weren't the first to complain. Customers perviously noticed another disturbing Costco bagel flaw taking over the bakery: their tendency to mold quickly. Folks online guessed that mold avoidance might be the reason the store chose simulated blueberries instead of fresh. In a Reddit thread calling out the imitated fruit ingredient, one user wrote, "If you've ever made blueberry muffins you know they store horribly. Even next day the area around the blueberries gets soggy." Another user suggested dried blueberries could provide an alternative without the mold risk.

For some Canadian shoppers, the thought of simulated blueberries was enough to steer them elsewhere for comparable baked goods. One Reddit user wrote that they visit Fairmount Bagels in Montreal for reliable bagels with real blueberries. Another user noted, "even Tim Hortons has real blueberries in the muffins ... But Costco wants something that's able to sit on the shelf for several days."

More users pointed out that imitation blueberries are common in other products, and Costco isn't the only offender. "I've seen [simulated blueberries] in instant oatmeal, breakfast cereal, bagels, scones, waffles, muffins and all of the packaged mixes to make those," one Reddit user wrote. Another replied, "Nothing we eat is real it feels like. Really sad."