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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.

Your article is kind of misleading in the beginning- you write as though kerrygold replaced their butter with this new version. What is “new” is the spreadable butter. You can still buy the same old sticks of Kerry gold butter that were always available. Just seemed like an uneccessary rant considering all you had to do was read the rest of the front of the package- “new” spreadable butter. Not just butter. Spreadable butter. Hence the “new product”. Want regular butter? Buy the one that doesn’t say new and “spreadable”. This whole post seems like you are reaching for a new blog post. What a silly reason to not buy from a brand anymore.
Interesting how people rush to judgment and label people’s reasons for doing something as “silly” when they don’t have all the facts in hand. The reason I stopped buying Kerry Gold was not because of the new soft tub spread discussed in this article, but because a friend of mine traveled to Ireland a couple of summers ago and told me that the Kerry Gold cows are supplemented with GMO feed and that she had found out about this from very credible sources. I don’t trust that brand at all anymore .. that is why I stopped buying Kerry Gold.
Hi Sarah – I came across this post while trying to find information about the new Kerrygold sticks of butter that have started appearing at my store. Usually, the standard 8 oz blocks of Kerrygold are near the deli section of my grocery store, but I’ve noticed that they’ve also started stocking a two-stick package of Kerrygold in the dairy aisle. I haven’t been able to find any information about whether this is the same butter, or if it’s a different product. Have you encountered this at all?
I no longer buy Kerry Gold, so have not noticed any packaging changes of late. Unfortunately, can’t comment on any recent developments. Sorry!
Hi, interesting article. I thought you might like to know that grass fed cows – at certain times of the year – produce a type of fat that is higher in polyunsaturated (less saturated) and I assume this is what the “spreadable” butter is all about. Kerrygold probably takes this butter and puts it in the special package. It is less expensive to purchase Kerrygold butter in the foil-wrapped bricks instead of the tubs unless you really want the butter which is softer and higher in polyunsaturates. In general, Kerrygold is usually higher overall in polyunsaturates than Organic Valley and you can tell by taking them out of the refrigerator and seeing which one is softer.
I appreciated that you included the comment from Kerry Gold. It should also be noted that grass-fed butter will naturally be lower in fat than fat coming from grain-fed cows. It is however, higher in nutritional value. Thanks for your post though. It is good to be aware. I welcome the day that we will have raw dairy readily available.
Great blog, Any idea why we can’t find Presidents Butter for sale. Amazon has had it listed as currently unavailable for so long we just don’t know where to go to find it. Any help would be great. Thanks
President butter is in Sainsbury Ely, but this could be miles away from you!
So not only is it 2 percent GMO but now this that I forgot about too?
I switched back and forth between KerryGold and Organic Valley Pasture Butter. I finally went to Kalona cause theirs said grass fed but was negligent to realize and stop pastured is better or the same as grass fed so the deciding factor was where is said the Kalona brand uses Celtic Sea Salt and Organic Valley just says salt.
I have went back to KerryGold It is dark yellow like no other brand and it so good tasting compared to the others I just really hope that the GMO’s don’t hurt me and they non organic labeling what do you think Sarah? I just feel like I cannot trust them but it IS such a GREAT product!!
I don’t use Kerry Gold anymore … 🙁 Am using Finlandia butter now.
I just bought some Finlandia butter at the store because they didn’t have any Kerrygold. It’s delicious but I am having a hard time finding any info online about whether the cows are grass fed. I assume they must be if you’re choosing to eat it? It’s also less expensive than Kerrygold here which is nice.
When I contacted the company, they told me grassfed and no GMOs.
You’re fine. Live more worry less. Just remember no milk cows are grass-fed 100 percent of the time. Their feed is supplemented during milking to keep their energy levels up and sustain their weight.
You need to check your own grammar dude.
Thank you.
I have a foil pkg of KerryGold butter with the printing BB 08/07/2015.
I’m guessing that is a Best Before date. Would that be August 7 or July 8, 2015?
When would that butter have been manufactured?
What is the lead time from when butter is made before it reaches the shelves in the USA? Is there a code or date stamp on the package? If I knew when the summer butter hit the shelves I could stock up ad avoid buying winter butter when the cows are fed a higher grain diet.