Beware Kerrygold Butter

I wrote a post a while back about how you should Trust People, Not Brands. Here is yet another example of why this is true. Check out the picture above. It’s a photo of Kerrygold Butter from the supermarket. Kerrygold, without question, is probably one of the best store butters you can buy. I myself have been using it for years for cooking.

The milk is from grass-fed cows and even though the cream used to make Kerrygold Butter is pasteurized, it is the best choice available to most folks who do not have access to raw butter from a small farm or who simply don’t want to use their precious raw butter for cooking.

I also know that many of you out there use Kerrygold too.  I conducted a Butter Poll on this blog back in the Spring 2011 and by far the most used butter (out of 1,500 or so total votes) was Kerrygold which received way more votes than even Organic Valley butter.

So what’s the problem?

My husband brought home the “new” Kerrygold butter the other day.  On the surface, it looked fine. Nowhere on the outside of the package was there any indication that there was a problem with this butter.  Here’s what it looks like.

I got suspicious with the “new” label, however.  There’s nothing “new” about butter. That’s what I like about it after all!

Another tip-off that there was a problem lurking was the proclamation on the label that this “New Kerrygold” was “naturally softer”. 

When I first saw the “naturally softer” words, I thought that meant that the butter was whipped and hence more spreadable.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want air whipped into my butter. This is a surefire way to get less product and get charged the same price for the privilege if you know what I mean.

I made a mental note to tell my husband not to buy this butter again because it was whipped and not as good a value.

But then, it got way worse…

Is Kerrygold Butter Grass-fed?

I took off the lid to the new Kerrygold package and saw the following words:

I had become a victim of the Big Fast One!

Kerrygold is stealthily selling LOWFAT butter and guess what? You get to pay the same price for the cheaper quality!

NOWHERE on the outside of the label did it say that the butter was low-fat. The ingredients said simply: pasteurized cream and salt the same as the commercialized Amish butter at the supermarket.

I daresay that this marketing ploy will be fooling a lot of folks who desire to buy full-fat grass-fed butter.

It seems that some butter brands have adopted what companies making substitutes for butter have been doing for years.

I have become so tuned in to these labeling tricks and manufacturer games over the years when it comes to product packaging that I check all the time what I buy even if I’ve been buying it for years.

But how many people really do this?

Ingredient Bait and Switch

You NEED to be doing this!  Manufacturers are changing ingredients and packaging all the time with the primary intention of increasing product sales and profitability at the expense of your health and the health of your wallet!

Reducing the fat content in its butter will skyrocket profits for Kerrygold as they will make the same per unit for the butter and yet be able to sell the skimmed cream to other companies to make ice cream or whatnot thereby increasing revenue substantially.

If you buy Kerrygold, I’m not telling you to stop buying it.  I’m only telling you to beware of this new packaging nonsense and be sure what you buy is what you intend: full-fat butter!

By the way, if you are wondering why I love full-fat butter, you might want to educate yourself on the low-fat scam by learning about the history of butter vs margarine in the United States.

As for me, I will be returning this product to the store for a full refund.  It is falsely advertised after all.  I had no way of knowing it was a low-fat product until I opened it.

Manufacturer Response

I received this email from Kerrygold following the widespread sharing of this article. For the record, I find it very hard to believe that my little blog brought this packaging error to their attention.

Do they have NO ONE on the production line in charge of quality control?  This was not a difficult problem to identify. Could we have a bit of spin going on here? Perhaps so. I am still returning my Kerrygold tub and sticking with the foil packages!

Dear Sarah,

Your blog has brought to our attention a packaging error of which we were unaware. While Kerrygold does sell a Reduced Fat & Sodium Butter the pack you show on your blog is 100% full fat butter which has been packed with the incorrect inner seal. There is no deliberate intent on our part to mislead our valued consumers or to misrepresent our product although we regret the confusion this is clearly creating.

We are working to identify how much product has been released into the market with the incorrect packaging so that we can replace it as soon as possible. In the meantime we would appreciate your assistance in clarifying the misunderstanding to your readers. We would love to provide further clarity — our email is [email protected] — and we are happy to answer any specific questions you and your readers may have in relation to the product.

With thanks & regards,

The Kerrygold Team

Why I No Longer Buy Kerrygold

I wanted to let all of you know that I no longer buy even the traditional Kerrygold brick butter in foil packaging. Why? A good friend visited Ireland and traveled extensively to a number of grass-based dairy farms. ]

I was told that while the cows that provide cream for the Kerrygold butter are definitely on pasture and hence “grass-fed”, they are being supplemented with GMO animal feed. This according to the local community and citizenry in Ireland.

So, the word on the street is that Kerrygold is not legitimately pastured either.

While I have not been able to confirm this story, I trusted its validity enough to permanently switch to another brand. I am currently buying Organic Valley Pastured Butter. While I am not happy with some of Organic Valley’s business practices that treat member farmers more like medieval serfs than the independent business owners that they are, I find these practices less onerous than feeding animals GMO feed without clearly informing the end consumer.