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Kerrygold is marketed as grass-fed and all-natural, but the tub butter has concerning ingredients, dangers and marketing ploys to consider before buying.
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. When I conducted a Butter Poll on this blog awhile back, 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 very tuned in to these labeling tricks and manufacturer games over the years. When it comes to packaging, I double-check the ingredients along with the manufacturing processes every few months. This is even for products that I’ve been buying 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! The primary intent of these “improvements” is to increase product sales and profitability. Your health is, sadly, of little to no concern in the grand scheme of things.
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. I find it very hard to believe that my blog suddenly 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.
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.
This credible source told me that while the cows that provide cream for the Kerrygold butter are definitely on pasture and hence “grass-fed”, they receive supplemental GMO animal feed as well especially during the winter months. The local community and citizenry in Ireland concur and will tell you as much if you are in the area.
So, the word on the street is that Kerrygold is not legitimately pastured either.
Butter from cows that get GMO feed introduces the very real possibility of Roundup residue in the butter.
Thanks but no thanks!
While I have not been able to confirm this story 100%, I trusted the credibility of the information enough to permanently switch to another brand (I currently use this one).
I use this butter for cooking in addition to the homemade pastured raw butter I make for non-cooking purposes.
I also no longer recommend Kerry Gold in my Shopping Guide.
What about Organic Valley butter as an alternative to Kerry Gold? While I am not happy about Organic Valley’s policy that disallows member farmers to sell raw milk on the side to their community (treating them more like medieval serfs than the independent business owners that they are), I find this less onerous than deceptively feeding animals GMO feed without clearly informing the end consumer.
There’s another big labeling problem with KerryGold unsalted butter. The label states ‘pasteurised cultured cream’ but instead, the finished butter is injected with an industrial flavoring. Not the same thing at all, and very unfair to U.S. producers who are making the real thing. I could send you the links.
James
As the “Healthy Home Economist” do you get involved in anything other than butter? How about soy? That poison weed is in EVERYTHING pretending to be food on store shelves these days. Unless put through a fermenting process, soy is poison to the human body. Well, to ANY body. Because of this you can buy dog food without soy but it is sneaked into EVERYTHING for American people. Just recently I was happy to see Bumble Bee albacore (just tuna) in WATER for a change but after opening a can I noted the actual ingredients and there was a “vegetable broth” added. Then the obligatory word (for stuff that is toxic to some people) SOY appeared at the end of ingredients. For what possible reason would anyone put soy in canned tuna? Unfermented soy probably causes more health problems to Americans than even fluoridated water. And ALL of it is GMOed to boot. Soy is the major cause of today’s goiter problems, especially in women. I met a neighbor lady who had the problem constantly and discovered that her DOCTOR had her drinking SOY MILK!!! Doctors can be more ignorant than the people they treat it seems. People give that poison to their babies! Don’t people ever check out anything for themselves in this country?!
Yes, I have many articles on soy on this blog. You are right .. it is in everything. It is a cheap filler. Subway chicken sandwiches were recently tested and found to only be about half actual chicken! The rest is soy.
I notice when i started cooking with kerrigold butter i started to feel sick. I took a break from it like a month and decided to use again and got sick… yea not buying this brand anymore… other organic brands are better and give me no side effects.
Thank you for the information. I to have used Kerrygold butter which was part of our Daniel Plan healthy eating plan. I will have to switch and let my group know. It is sad because I really like the butter.
Just stick to Grade A Real Wisconsin butter and screw the Irish!!
I recently bought Finlandia on sale at my local Stop & Shop and I have been loving the taste. The butter is yellow and very creamy!! I have been thinking about switching to this brand permanently
WHAT ABOUT FINLANDIA BUTTER
I have been a certified organic farmer for 10 years but not currently. I started in 1996. In the early days of organic farming, most farmers were farming organic because we new it was the right way to farm. Healthy food healthy people. Now in 2017 there is a lot of corruption in so called organic farming. There was a little corruption in the 1990s but it has increased much more now. When I first became certified organic, I was surprised with the inspection procedures which amounted to an organic inspector only looking at paperwork I had filled out with receipts of products I had bought and the inspector spent a few hours talking with me about my farming procedures and a walk around the farm. I said to myself It is clearly left to the integrity of the farmer whether or not the finished product will be organic because there is really no one checking. Along the way I came across a chemical farmer who told me of a certified organic farmer buying melons from him because the organic farmer said he could not grow melons. I thought this organic farmer was buying a few melons to eat for himself until later that same year I saw this organic farmers sticker on melons in a health food store. Did I report it? Yes I did. Did the organic authorities pursue it? No they did not. Also heard an organic farmer say he used non organic practices and one very big wholesale organic farmer say that he was so discouraged with the insect pressure that he could understand why farmers spray chemicals. I told this farmer that on my farm I had learned that correctly fertilizing the soil made the vegetables so healthy that the vegetables did not have insects and I did not need to use any organic pesticides, but he did not believe it could be true. Also now even local farmers know what to say when asked if their cows are 100% grass fed or if the cows are A2/A2 genetics. So the farmers have learned what the public wants to hear. Do I still buy organic? Yes I do, but my taste buds, belly and body have learned when a product is not organic no matter what the label or the farmer says. I have bought raw milk, cheese and butter from several local farms who say their cows are 100% grass fed and the cows are A2/A2 genetics, but the proof is in the tasting and feeling when it goes into my belly if the product is good or not and if the farmer is telling the truth. Another thing is most farmers do not have enough pasture for their cows and the cows are eating over manured grass. I recommend at least 5 acres per 1000 pounds of cow. Because no one is really looking or checking if the product is organic and the farmers know it. It is left to the integrity of the farmer, broker, distributor and retailer. And I have learned how little integrity there is in the world of finance. So buyer beware. Do your own homework, or better yet get your own farm.
Great job Sarah, For speaking out about this butter and I knew it had to be GMO because it wasn’t on their label that said non-GMO grains there is also a butter out there that looks like Kerrygold almost identical labeling but it’s called Greenfields pure Irish butter this is only 8 ounce blocks I bought it at a local grocery store , but nowhere does the label have a website or does it state that it’s non-GMO grains it just states that it’s milk from grass fed cows, people need to be more informed about what the farmers in many places around the world are doing to our food chain
There is confusion about European butter because it must be labeled if there are GMOs in a product made for human consumption, but no such restrictions on animal feed. GMO animal feed is apparently quite widely used in European dairy farms.
Sarah, what is your issue with GMO?
The scientific research to date on GMOs indicates devastation of health. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/from-sterility-to-stomach-holes-11-scientific-reasons-why-you-must-avoid-gmos-now/
It’s inhumane to feed that stuff to animals and it very likely harms humans too given the terrible things it does to the animals in animal studies to date.
If you offer a cow a GMO grain mix and a nonGMO grain mix, the cow will CHOOSE the nonGMO grain mix and REFUSE the GMO grain. The only reason a cow will eat the GMO grain mix is when there isn’t a nonGMO option.