Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
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.
Crap! I don’t have the inner seal, but I may well be a victim of their bogus-ness! Thank you for pointing this out
LOVE your website.
Ginnie, LMT
I bought both recently, and the ingredients and fat content at 11g are the same.
The inner label says the softer butter is from summer milk.
The weight is the same and the price for the softer is less at Safeway.
I prefer the texture and flavor of the stick of butter … I guess I’m eating seasonally … winter butter in the wintertime! ; )
Enjoy your favorite butter,
Christine Hueber
I think you need to go back and re-read what I wrote to Kerry Gold Duke after your done wiping the froth from your chin. *im just joking 🙂
Go and take a look at the practices the food companies have been upto for the past 30/40 years.
Im going to bow out of this thread now because I dont which to hi-jack it and make it into something else when its about butter, nor do I want to get into a rooster measuring contest with you.
Ive included links, people can look at them and make an intelligent decision and form their own opinions. They can read through the thread and think for themselves.
There are plenty of facts around if you choose to look into it. I’ll say it one last time “this is not the same butter as we have been buying for all these years”. Also I didnt say they adultereted the butter – you said that.
If you look into it you may find that they marketed the earlier spreads as butter and later had to withdraw them as they were found to contain olive oil and so there claim of 100% butter was invalid. They have since re-labeled, at least in the region im in. (not the solid blocks but the spreadable varieties, an over sight or something more sinister Ill leave the readers of this forum to decide)
You may think my lashing was silly, and your entiteled to your opinion. As I think your comments here are “naive” which is my opinion. As far as im concerned Im entitled to make a complaint if i dont agree or like something and im entitled to my opinions, and I think its a pity more people dont speak out against the corporations that are at the moment from what i see are treating us like battery ends.
Ill also say, i bet you dont watch that link, and i bet you didnt take the time to analyse the others, cause i think your a troll, and your not really interested in whats going on your just interested in picking a fight on this forum, for whatever agenda. Just my opinion huh?
Vincent, again, you have to stop assuming that people don’t have any clue about trash being passed off as food just because they don’t agree with your methods. I critiqued the things you actually wrote in these comments; you’ve called me naive and a troll and claim I’m looking to start fights. You say I’m frothing (with anger) and then claim you’re joking. Based on what we’ve both actually written, it would seem you’re the one who’s angry and looking to start a fight.
My whole point was that Sarah was making a big ado about nothing–that THIS company was not guilty of what she was insinuating in THIS case, yet you get from it that I just think all corporations are fine and dandy and I don’t believe they would EVER do ANYTHING to reduce the quality of the food we eat. Poor, naive, little me.
You say you think I’m a troll. Trolls resort to name calling–have I done that with you? Trolls don’t add to the conversation, they only try to upset people. But Richard seemed to think I added quite a bit to the conversation. You say you think I’m not really interested in what’s going on. You’re wrong. Would buying the bulk of my food from farmers markets to get real and fresh food the past 15 years be enough to count as interested in your book? Or telling everyone I know about the dangers of GMOs and RBGH and toxic pesticides during that time? Reading countless articles by people involved in the real food movement? Or being asked to serve on the board of the only organic-only farmers market in town? Would any of that count as “interested” to you? You say I’m trying to pick a fight, “for whatever agenda”. Perhaps you think I’m an employee of Kerrygold sent to discredit you? I currently don’t work outside of the home and am about to be stay-at-home dad.
Yes, it’s just your opinion, and it stinks.
I addressed the fact that Sarah and most of the people commenting seemed to be acting like a mob (including you) afraid and bashing Kerrygold for something they didn’t seem to have done in this instance. In turn you called me names and proceeded to lecture me about the state of food today, insinuating that I didn’t know enough to comment here. It seems you just like to lecture everybody. I only hope our discourse gets the next people to come to this page to not irrationally freak out like so many others seemed to do.
Anymore name-calling and lecturing by you will be ignored by me. I have done what I intended to do by commenting here–Richard let me know that.
Listen Duke, with the greatest of respect – I dont want my food interfered with – end of.
Im all for choice. Give people spreadable, give them whipped give them choice. But please give me the choice to keep buying what i been buying and dont tamper with my food. Thanks 🙂
If your only just waking up to what is in fact going on, please feel free to do your research. This one will start you off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njd0RugGjAg&feature=player_embedded
Also:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19984796
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Tb35v7yIy1c
http://foodmyths.org/myths/hunger-food-security/
http://www.agricorporateaccountability.net/
Now im certainly not saying that Kerry Gold are involved in any of these practises and im not interested making them look like much of anything lol. Im stating my opinion, and im saying I dont want my food tampered with.
As for conspiracy theory…Im only interested in conspiracy fact, and also on the subject of choice, I choose not to have my head in the sand…..just saying.
Vincent, I am certainly not “just waking up to what’s going on”. The fact that you would assume so, simply because I don’t agree with you giving a tongue-lashing to the employees of a company that has done nothing wrong, is just silly.
Kerrygold didn’t take away your choice–they’re still making the same bricks of butter they’ve made all along. So you’re angry because the butter’s not hard anymore? There’s a guy earlier in the comments who’s mad because the bricks aren’t soft anymore! So is there a conspiracy to make it both softer and harder? Kerrygold unsalted butter in the 8 ounce brick is the only butter I buy, and it’s been the only butter I’ve bought for years now. I read every label on everything I buy. I avoid all kinds of products because of the garbage they contain. And there have been no ingredient changes on Kerrygold bricks, they’re still firm, and I’ve not seen or tasted anything to make me believe they are sneaking in vegetable oil and not telling anyone.
Now you say you’re not accusing Kerrygold of doing anything wrong. But in the email you say you sent them you accuse them of changing their butter, possibly “in the name of greed”, and suggest they fire whoever is behind the changes.
You say you are interested in conspiracy fact, yet you give absolutely no facts to back up your previous argument that Kerrygold has secretly adulterated the butter they are selling as regular, full-fat butter.
Lecturing people about things they haven’t done wrong is not productive, nor a good way to win people to your cause. It’s a shame that a website with such a large readership would encourage such behavior.
What I see here are a bunch of people who figured out that a lot of corporations will try to screw them over, so now they’re hysterical that every corporation is trying to screw them over all the time.
Never mind that whipping air into something can make it spreadable, people are convinced there’s oil in it because Land o’ Lakes puts oil in it. Someone is convinced of a conspiracy because the bricks are now harder, whereas just a few comments from that someone is convinced of a conspiracy because the bricks are now softer. Well, which is it? People bought Kerrygold because it seemed to be closer to a farm product than an industrial product, yet any variation makes them think they’re getting screwed, never mind that a total lack of variation is a hallmark of an industrial product. So which do you want–more natural or no variation? Don’t want whipped butter? Then don’t buy it. I noticed a year ago that Kerrygold bricks seemed to have sharper edges than in the past, as people here did, but my thought was that they updated their manufacturing or packaging equipment–not that they were adulterating the butter.
You see this same sort of hysterical mob mentality over at the Weston Price forums. People get tuned into the fact that industrial oils are bad for them despite what the “experts” say, and then they get scared that everything they ever heard was a lie and that all food is making them sick, and they get scared of everything.
It would have been nice if Sarah had contacted Kerrygold first before making such an accusatory post and sending so many people into a fit. To See people like Vincent give a diatribe to Kerrygold on how evil corporations are, even though it doesn’t seem to fit in this case, is simply ridiculous. Vincent, do the labels on Kerrygold’s bricks say anything about adding olive oil to their butter? The label on my brick says only “cultured pasteurized cream”. Where is there oil in that list? How can they change the ingredients when there’s only one ingredient listed? Perhaps you should direct your anger where it’s deserved, rather than accusing a company of doing something which you have no proof it has done.
All I see here is somebody at Kerrygold put the wrong label on the manufacturing line once. But that couldn’t people–people don’t ever make a mistake! It must be a corporate conspiracy!
If I saw anything in this post and the comments that looked like proof, I might think the people here were on to something. But instead all I see is a lot of fear and anger being used to vilify a company that doesn’t seem to deserve it.
Duke, that is the most rational, complete, response Ive seen yet.
Well said.
I think your absolutly right Sara. Heres something for you all to cut and paste. Please find original email below and details of where to email.
CUT&PASTE
“Im writing to you in frustration and concern of the change in consistency of the Kerry Gold Irish butter blocks. I prefer it hard. Please do not alter the recipe. Please do not make it softer. Please do not change it in any way shape or form. It was perfect the way it was. If people want spreadable they can buy the plastic tub variety. Please bring back the rock hard solid traditional butter in its unchanged state the way we have been eating it for decades, we want the original recipe, the original technique and we want the original HARD”
Thankyou.”
Where to email:
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/KerrygoldUK
Further contact details:
For those interested in the recent Rat Study to come out of france:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/should-you-worry-about-gentically-modified-food/#axzz29aRuvZFR
FIND BELOW THE ORIGINAL EMAIL (I sent).
“Seems every time I go to buy butter now, the recipe has been changed or is softer..if you can even get Kerry Gold butter, The Tesco Metro’s here don’t sell it nor does Co-Op. I come from a very large irish family based in England. Our family has used Kerry Gold butter as a STAPLE for generations.
We dont want our butter softer. We dont want olive oil in our butter. We dont want a new recipe, we were perfectly happy with the proven recipe produced in its traditional state. We dont want kerry gold to be like these hip and trendy spreads that are 1 molecule away from Plastic.
My mum is 85 and has eaten Kerry Gold all her life. Please can you stop interfering with our food source. Whoever you are. Pound for pound, Kerry Gold is the most expensive spread out there per quantity. We are happy to pay it. If your margins have become so tight that you feel you have to substitute inferior ingredients.
Please don’t, just raise the price. We are happy to pay it. Please stop changing it and seemingly appearing to be trying to keep up with the “trendy jones” spreads next door. Please Don’t, just stop and do what your good at.
If this continues, we won’t be buying any more butter from you and I suspect nor will anyone else in time. The alternatives ar’n’t very attractive but if we want to eat crap theres 50 other spreads to choose from. Thanks.
I suspect these changes are in the name of greed or some one at home who has nothing better to do than write to you to complain about how hard there butter is. The same people who wont buy the butter again anyway and who just decided to try it.
Your upsetting your regular customers who have enjoyed and bought your butter for decades. Never a wise thing to do. If you have someone within the company driving these changes, I recommend you get rid of them before they destroy a long established business that has always sold a good product. If that does happen in the future, dont say you were not forwarned.
Yours Sincerly.”
Mr Grayem
NB. Alot of Vitamins and Minerals are Fat Soluable. Not all fats are bad. Some fats are good. Vitamin Absorption is more efficient in the presence of fat. If your in it for the longevity as am I, write to kerry gold, make your mark, get involved. Its looking like it was a very bad idea letting these supermarkets in. Im starting to think we were better off when we were a nation of many small to medium sized enterprises. I also have an email from Asda regarding GM feed in the meat for anyone that wants a copy.
Brilliant Vincent. Thank you for this. Most helpful. I would just note if I may that folks writing from the US should use this form http://www.kerrygoldusa.com/contact-us
Best wishes.
So I already got a reply (see below) so are they just flat out lying?
BEGIN EMAIL FROM KERRYGOLD
Thank you for contacting us. We are very sorry to hear that you are disappointed with your recent purchase of Kerrygold Butter. We can assure you we have not changed Kerrygold Salted or Unsalted Butters available in the foil packaging. What was the best before date on the butter your purchased?
Kerrygold Irish Cheeses and Butters are subject to strict quality control. Each production batch is tested for a number of parameters before release onto the market. We are sorry that this happened to your cheese and we will pass this along to our technical team in Dublin.
We would like to thank you once again for bringing this matter to our attention and we hope the dissatisfaction you experienced on this occasion will not affect you from re-purchasing Kerrygold products.
In the meantime, we will send you a selection of Kerrygold cheeses and butter products, with our compliments and trust that you will not be disappointed with these, if you care to send us on your address. We appreciate you notifying us of your experience and thank you for your loyalty to Kerrygold Irish cheeses and butters.
END EMAIL FROM KERRYGOLD
I recently emailed Kerry Gold and voiced my frustration and concern with the alteration of there products. Even the foil wrapped ones are now softer. Somethings changed. Like they change everything. Why? For the bottom line. Your money is your vote. They are currently trying to bring in GM ingredients into the animal feed. Stealth tactics are being employed with studies that last only 60 days. (Not unlike how the US got Aspertame in) A recent study on Rats over the course of the last 2 years showed rats fed on GM feed lived 33% shorter lifespans. If you DO NOTHING NOW – YOU WILL SETTLE FOR NOTHING LATER! Email Kerry Gold, tell them you dont want your food interfered with and if they continue and dont give us back the original product. STOP buying it from them. YOUR MONEY IS YOUR VOTE. SEND AN EMAIL – DRAW A MARK IN THE SAND. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Vincent – may I suggest you cut and paste your email text to Kerry Gold on this page so that everyone can simple copy and paste that into their own email? I believe more people will take the time to email KG if most of the work is already done. Just a thought. Thanks!
My husband bought the tub when the store was all out of the foil packs. It has a funny aftertaste, which I couldn’t identify. My best guess is that it could be some type of olive oil.
Sarah – what butter are you using now, a year later? Thanks!
I dont have the label to look at as I don’t by it any more. The labels on Kerrygold and Yeo Valley both
used to say GRASS FED COWS., AND NOW ITS NOT ON THERE.
Does anyone know if there is a grass fed pure butter available in UK. THANKS.