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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.
Thank you! This was helpful. I’m allergic to palm oil and have not been able to get clear answers in regards to Kerry Gold butter. I am now able to reach out to them via the email you posted. Thanks!
Thank you for staying on top of this sharing this information! I am grateful for your work!
Thanks for the info. We have a couple of local farms that provide butter to our stores so I will be switching back to them and NOT paying the overblown prices for Kerrygold. I hate having to be this vigilant, but what is a Carnivore eater to do?
Wow! I’m SO relieved to have come across this post, Sara! Thank you for all the research you do AND for sharing your knowledge with us. It was also great to read the post from those that live in the UK that were able to provide even more insight into “our” precious Keri Gold here in the US. Sadly, I’ve been purchasing Keri Gold for years (along with Organic Valley when it’s on sale). However, even though I’ve seen this new version, I’ve never purchased it because I sensed something wasn’t right. Clearly, in this day and age, nothing is sacred (unless we raise our own animals and make our own food (I’m developing major trust issues!). I have two more sticks of Keri Gold to use up and then I’ll be done as well – or maybe I should just chuck ‘em! 🙂 I’m going to research where to find your cream suggestions around where I live in Tarpon Springs, FL. I, personally, have sensitivities to both casein and lactose, but I’ve read that raw milk is different – so maybe I can begin to slowly include this in my diet?
If you follow the natural news at all you you know that Glyphosate is an extremely dangerous toxin. I can’t believe that in this modern day someone could say that the dangers are overstated! The moment I hear that Kerrygold butter contains this substance, I am off it. It causes far more than just cancer and pollutes everything it touches!
I wanted to try it because I live in Canada now, and since I arrived here, I cannot stand the butter, even the organic butters, because they are tasteless. No difference between butter and lard in this country. What other butter can I try? I don’t eat butter because it is too awful. I am also an organic enthusiast because my health is so important to me.
Please tel me what other butter I can try, Barbara
Hi, I’m in the UK and have never understood the hype that Kerrygold gets in the USA.
It’s pretty run of the mill butter, and nothing different from the rest of the butters you can find over here.
Dairy cows are pasture fed for around 7-8 months of the year – basically during the grass growing season- then they are moved indoors and fed a mixture of hay, silage and cattle feed – it’s too cold for the grass to grow in the winter months .
Just because something is grass fed, it doesn’t mean organic – the grass on dairy farms is managed as a harvest and is top dressed with fertilisers in the winter and also sprayed with caterpillars ensure a good harvest of grass for the cows to eat .
It’s true that hormones and antibiotics are banned for use in any animals in the food chain – and animals that are treated with antibiotics for illness, will be removed from production until they are cleared by a vet. But that doesn’t mean they are organic . If something is organic , it will have it clearly stated on the packaging.
Cattle feed can have GMOs in it over here – I wouldn’t know what percentage of farms use it because it has to be imported – the growing of GMO crops are banned here – but feeding GMO to farm animals is not banned.
As I said, Kerrygold isn’t thought of as a ‘premium butter’ over here . I think the fact that it tastes different from the US butter, is because, in common with all butters over here, it has a higher fat content than American butters.
Having grown up in Germany and then moved to the USA the butter was a huge disappointment! Back then it was even hard to get unsalted butter, but the flavor was not even butter! You are probably spot on with the fat content, but the feed in my mind plays a major role as well. To this day KerryGold is still the better tasting butter, though Costco has a less costly version now (not sure if it comes in unsalted). I recently purchased Grassland brand butter in the US. Read up on their website and expected something close to KerriGold, however it is extremely white in color and is missing flavor! In my growingup years we had varied butter options, from the white, barely tastes like butter to rich butter flavor, no famous name Irish butter to our local butter. American butter is sort of low on the bottom, is it from a lot of silage feed??? Aldi sells an Irish butter as well, again salted only, but I would say not much different from KerriGold. Yes, I made my own butter as well, back when the kids were little and we went through a lot of raw milk; I skimmed the cream off and made butter. Consider yourself blessed with butter!
I really appreciated the perspective your post provided, Gillan. It was valuable information coming from someone that actually lives in the UK. I feel so dooped having been loyal to Keri Gold for years. Not only am I DONE, but I’ll be able to share yours and Sara’s information with our adult children who also buy the Keri Gold.
Thank you for the work. I read one comment [another location] saying that the GMO feed was only a partial supplementation during winter [when butter is not made], and thus thought that the GMO’s don’t wind up in the butter.
Is this sound logic?
Not sound logic. The butter is made year round and at the very least, the glyphosate the GMO feed is sprayed with (while in the fields) definitely makes its way into the body fluids of the cow. This includes the milk!
As I understand it, Round UP is banned in Europe so it should not end up in their feed , unless they purchase it from a non UE country that allows it.. And their is no Proof that GMO’s are harmful, this is a just a trigger word,,
Only some countries have banned glyphosate. UK is not one of them. In fact, glyphosate residue is turning up in bread samples in the UK.
There is mountains of proof that GMOs are harmful, I believe the counter argument is that they’re not harmful enough that they will cause a major increase in the incidence of cancer or other maladies but they certain do cause some as experiments have repeatedly shown.
Nonetheless I’m skeptical that the cattle are fed foods containing GMOs as that is more a thing in the US and not Europe. If they’re fed GMOs then so are the US foods. I’d get some sort of confirmation on this story before anything else. To be honest the author of this article seems to have some kind of bias against Kerrygold, first it was having less fat now it’s being fed GMOs.
I made the exact same mistake. But instead of taking it back I chalked it up to my mistake and have NEVER bought this butter again. Now I buy from a local farm and don’t regret it. It’s their loss.
First, is there a way to organize the comments to see most recent as most are from a decade ago, yet I found one stray comment from 2020, mixed in between and it takes ages to keep clicking “show more comments”?
It’s July 2021 and our local Shoprite in NJ had stopped selling Kerrygold butter and I didn’t know why. I figured maybe low sales? Suddenly it reappeared and I purchased some, as it was the better price of other grass fed butters. Now I see why there was a lull in production. The sticks, which normally would be solid, are now soft like margarine. Extremely strange! And on the label it shows Pasteurized cream, skim milk cultures. It used to be just cream – so now they are adding skim milk and possibly whipping it before molding into a stick? So we are getting not full fat but partial fat.
After this last package of sticks, I am done. Sick of bait and switch and false labeling.
I bought the new tub, thinking it was simply repackaging, and knew immediately they had changed something. Sure enough, the nutritional facts on the bottom of the tubs have different sodium and cholesterol contents. The new butter is simply not as good, not worth the extra money I was willing to pay for the original.
Organic Valley butter is OK. I will stop eating Kerrygold! I’d like to know WHEN they began feeding cows GMO feed? This really pisses me off!!!!!!!
They’ve been doing this for MANY years according to my sources.