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.

Kerry gold is still consistently yellow, so I give them the benefit of the doubt. A bit of GMO feed in the winter months to keep costs down? While not optimal, I see the impact on my finances as outweighing the potential effect of 3% GMO.
Kerrygold isn’t more yellow than Organic Valley cultured butter and OV isn’t any more expensive with no GMO risk … I’ll take OV over Kerrygold’s GMO fed cows any day.
Organic Patured Valley Butter is the worst! Please don’t buy it or support their company! The organic label does not protect the treatment of the cows. They also feed their cows a HIGH grain diet which is so unnatural for cows and unhealthy. That’s why their butter is WHITE. Kerrygold feeds their cows grass year round expect for a small percentage of the year when it’s too cold and they feed them grains. This is where the GMO concern came into play. However it’s speculated that their cows are only given up to 3% GMO grains and there has already been a petition to stop this. I say that’s a far lesser evil than eating butter from a factory farm cow who doesn’t get to roam in the grass and eat its natural diet. The only reason Pasture Valley is organic is because they feed their cows non GMO corn. But guys, corn is SO bad for cows! Just like it is for salmon but they feed farm raised salmon corn too! So unnatural 🙁
I know OV isn’t great, but for those who can’t get local butter, it is the best out there from what I’ve researched. At least the grain isn’t GMO! And, it isn’t white … the cultured butter is quite yellow. Not as deep yellow as the raw local butter from my dairy farmer, but still quite good.
I just bought some French butter from our local international store. I’m never going back to American butter again! As for Kerry Gold, it is disappointing that they supplement with GMO feed.
I am hopeful Kerrygold will halt the GMO feeding of their cows at some point in the future. Consumer pressure is key.
I used to love Kerry Gold, but my most recent experience with the traditional foil wrapped type was very unpleasant. I noticed a definite difference in taste from the last time I had it.
It is incredibly difficult to get facts about anything now, we do well to remember that all food processors have one criteria, profits, people and their health are not a consideration, there is a wealth of food scandals to substantiate this, not including the “omissions” from labelling. Let the buyer beware and be vigilant…
Who are these sources?
Good for you Sarah! I detest companies that cheat people.
I recently was at my daughter-in-law’s house and tasted the kerrygold tub that has canola oil in it by spreading it on a biscuit,it was really rancid tasting. Anyone, have you experienced this? My son and his wife say they don’t taste any difference.
Came across website because googled has anyone noticed change in taste to kerrygold butter.I did not enjoy taste of new product.I have discarded the rest of the tub and seeking a product which tastes like good old fashioned full fat butter.can bloggers suggest any.
today Tuesday 25th October went round to my local for a half pound of Kerrygold butter which usually comes to the top of the butter dish, on inspection found that it was nowhere near it’s half a pound size, it came in at 200grms and 15mm lower in the dish than it normally does, this will be the last time that I buy their products as it now appears that they have reduced the size of the block of butter by nearly a third but are still charging £1.39p for a smaller block, have message Kerrygold on FB expressing my anger at their deceit I don’t suppose that I’ll get an answer, but that’s it for me, Remember Mars Bars when they were reduced haven’t bought any of their products since, I’m applying the same to Kerrygold.