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jasdip1

The Palm Oil and Butter debate

Jasdip
3 years ago

My farmer friend that I follow on Facebook, "Farmer Tim" a local dairy farmer posted this lengthy post today. He's fed up with all the misinformation.

Deep breaths.

Ok let’s chew the fat - what’s up with butter?

I’m a dairy farmer so I have a vested interest in this topic but I’m also a consumer just like you and I know that butter consistency has become a hot topic. I have been following this closely and here is what I have learned so far...

As you know, I am not into politics or mud slinging but I need you to know that the root of this issue was born out of politics with an agenda and it drives a knife deep into the heart of every dairy farmer I know. Politics aside...

*Cows are NOT fed palm OIL. Palm oil is used in thousands of products produced by humans like margarine, Nutella, cookies, soap, shampoo, chocolate, lipstick, chips, and even bread. Palm oil is NOT added to butter when it’s processed. Milk and butter are palm oil free!!! As an aside I recognize that there are concerns with the palm oil industry in general even if there are sustainable sources but the focus of this post is on butter hardness.

*Cows can be fed small amounts of palm FAT (not palm oil), also known as palmitic acid. Palm fat is a by-product of the human food palm oil industry so in essence it would be wasted otherwise and sent to land fill. It can be used to offset energy deficits in cows when they are at the height of their lactation to benefit their health and make them more efficient. Palm fat is NOT added to butter when it’s processed either.

*Cows naturally produce palm fat regardless of it being added to their feed or not. In fact, about 1/3 of their naturally-produced fat is palm fat! This fact blew my mind

*A cow typically eats about 35kg of feed a day which is mostly grasses/hay but they can be supplemented with approximately 200g (0.2 kg) — that’s 0.6% of their daily ration — of palm fat if needed. Feed rations are tested and balanced by a nutritionist for optimum cow health.

*Other countries like the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand also use palm fat to supplement rations so it’s not unique to Canada. In fact, Canada thankfully can grow high quality nutrient-dense feeds for our cows so supplementing with palm fat for energy isn’t always warranted. It’s a very expensive product so it is used sparingly if at all.

*There is currently ZERO evidence showing that adding palm fat to the feed ration makes butter harder. Take note that in the original Twitter survey that started this whole media storm around 50% of people found no difference in their butter. Also remember that it’s still winter and many houses are colder than normal. I live in an 1885 farmhouse with almost no insulation so I should know

*Milk composition and fat yield can be affected by all kinds of things like genetics, climate, breed of cow, stage of lactation, time of year, feed quality, types of feed etc...

*Palm fat, which is approved by government food inspection agencies as safe, has been used in dairy cattle feed rations for 40 years so why the sudden perceived change in butter consistency? Some believe that it could be influenced by a processing or milk handling issues. For example, research is being done to see if loading milk trucks by gravity vs pumping the milk into trucks makes a difference in product consistency — if there is even a proven difference at all. Right now, from what I understand, all claims of butter hardness are anecdotal.

All this being said, we are taking consumer concerns very seriously - you are our customers and your thoughts are important to us. As producers we are frustrated by the politics and misinformation but that doesn’t change our response. Dairy Farmers of Canada has formed a working committee to look into your concerns. To some it appears as admitting guilt but to me their actions are what good customer service is all about. Please don’t share anymore misinformation about butter - people might “spread” it

I have been pretty overwhelmed lately and feel burnt out by all this so I am seriously taking a bit of a mental health break from social media. Boy, the media loves to “churn” up controversy I will be back a “butter” person.

I am attaching a number of articles by people who are knowledgeable about the topic. As a consumer I’m learning along with you. I will share more as we learn more.

DFC’s public statement:

https://dairyfarmersofcanada.ca/.../consider-using...

An article interviewing a genuine expert on the topic of palm fat. It’s excellent so if you don’t speak French use Google translate. I will try to copy an English version in the comments.

https://www.lebulletin.com/.../non-le-gras-ajoute-a-la...

From the University of Guelph. Please note that he made the mistake of using the term palm oil when it should have been palm fat

https://www.foodfocusguelph.ca/post/buttergate-or-bs...



Comments (31)

  • Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
    3 years ago

    I had no idea that was so much controversy about butter. I buy Irish butter that is 100% produced in Ireland mainly because it's grass-fed and they don't use herbicides like Americans do. Now that I've been eating it for several years I can tell a distinct difference between that and store brand butter in taste.

    I still use cheap butter for mass baking and recently have been buying vegan butter which to me is basically margarine with a fancy name for my vegan friend.

  • Elmer J Fudd
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    "It can be used to offset energy deficits in cows.."

    Translation - it supplies calories. Regular food does too although likely at a greater cost than a by- product that seems to be described as something otherwise discarded. Further translation - available and cheap.

    Feed animals normal and natural animal feed. It's worked for a long time. Roll back permissive rules for adulterated and non-traditional feeding and see what happens - there's no reason for studies or "working committees" of dairy industry people.

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  • plllog
    3 years ago

    The article Carol originally posted did say specifically that it was palmitic acid added to the feed, though in that topic we also talked about "spreadable" butter which is blended with oil.

    Farmer Tim gives no more evidence of whether feeding the cows palmitic acid does or doesn't make the butter harder than the original article, which said it was suspected because the palm was given to the cows to increase production to meet Covid-19 times increased demand. That is a correlation. A hypothesis is drawn from it. There's no proof. A thing that has changed in the same timeframe as the butter is supposed to have changed. It's certainly easier to make the ladies give more milk than to try to get more cows to give more milk when the demand might return to normal when people get back to more normal lives. As is often said, correlation doesn't imply causation. It could be colder kitchens, it could be the feed additive, it could be a new way or processing or churning that hasn't been identified. It could be just the fact of more feed. And a dairy farmer would surely know a lot more things it could be. And if the proof that the butter is harder is just a Twitter issue, it may not be true at all. But Farmer Tim hasn't disproved it, either.

    Someone should do some experiments... Are we having science fairs this year?

  • bpath
    3 years ago

    DH bought some organic butter from Ireland today, he will put a stick of that and a stick of our regular butter in butter dishes and compare. I will keep you posted as to what he observes.

  • lucillle
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    My father worked on a farm for one summer to make some money. This story is not about the the farm animals, it is about the farm help. They were expected to get up VERY early and after a small snack they headed out to do various chores. Hours later, at mid morning, they stopped to have a 'farmer's breakfast' and it was a lot of food, calorie rich including meat, pancakes with plenty of butter and syrup, and so on. Many of the help were like him, teens/early 20s and they ate a lot anyway. They would eat this huge high fat breakfast and work again later and it was needed energy as they did not gain weight, according to my father.

    Horses are sometimes fed a high fat food (Amplify by Purina) when additional calories are needed for conditioning and performance.

    My point is that added fat is sometimes used for both critters and people in appropriate circumstances.

    I certainly agree with plllog that research is called for. Until there are facts about feeding cows this particular kind of supplement, and how and whether it affects butter, it is all opinion.

    Translation - it supplies calories. Regular food does too although likely at a greater cost than a by- product that seems to be described as something otherwise discarded. Further translation - available and cheap.

    This assessment sounds amazingly like the assessments of feed ingredients made by the Dog Food Advisor people. Just sayin'.

  • lindac92
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    My information is likely out of date....but correct in principle. My late husband was manager of 5 dairy farms as well as a cheese plant, which strangely enough didn't use the milk from the cows on the farms, because tht milk was grade A milk and cheese can be made with grade B milk...so it made sense to sell the milk form the Farms' cows and buy cheaper milk for cheese.
    For many years before the cheese business came to be, but while my husband was living on the farm ( his father was farm manager and at that time there was only 1 farm) the cattle were "show cattle" bringing big dollars when sold and as breeding stock. But to bring the big dollars they had to be "on test"....meaning that they were milked 3 times a day and the volume and butterfat content carefully measured.
    During the winter when green pasture is not available, the cows ate silage and dried hay that had been bailed....and supplements, at that time beet pulp was a large portion of the supplemental feed.
    The point if this is that for a cow to produce the most milk with the optimum amount of butterfat she needs to be fed well and not stressed. As I am reading palm fat is the food supplement in question, and the question is does it make the butter harder to spread.
    To make the butter harder to spread, the molecular base of the fat in butter would have to change, unless a processor was adding something to the butter in the packaging of it, unlikely.


    We do know that there are certain things that pas into the milk, thinking of breast feeding moms and their babies....and garlic is one, antibiotics another and alcohol for one more, but I don't believe anyone would suggest that if a mom ate a couple of twinkies that the fat in her breast milk would change.

  • floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    Whether or not palm fat gets into the dairy production chain, there are more pressing reasons to avoid it than the flavour and behaviour of one’s butter. https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/8-things-know-about-palm-oil

  • Lars
    3 years ago

    I watched this butter taste test show (part of it, before I became too bored) on one of the streaming Samsung channels we get.

    This is a job I definitely would not want.

  • Elmer J Fudd
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    Besides increasing calorie intake, palm lipids fed to cows apparently also affect bovine metabolism to enhance milk production. I found several articles on the topic.

    Out of preference, I only buy European butters - French President is our first choice but Kerrygold when not available, and haven't experienced what the OP mentions. I don't know about these items with certainty but in general, European food products tend to come from more traditional production practices and have less intervention of food engineers as here. Flavor and wholesomeness have a greater priority than here, where it seems cost decisions are made even when good flavor and wholesomeness are sacrificed.

  • beesneeds
    3 years ago

    Nice informative thread :)

  • Embothrium
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    We have Big Food at work here in the US. But we also have alternative producers as well - any time and anywhere Big Food hasn't bought them out or killed them off with things like buying up the local animal feed supplier and then jacking up the prices offered to targeted alternative producers.

  • Tonya Yoder
    3 years ago

    Great to hear from the wonderful world of Dairy Farming.After all Farming and Ranching is so very very important to our nation.We don't always get the proper recognition,but for all the hard-working Ranchers & Farmers thanks so very much,for your dedication,many loong hrs working in unpleasent weather and conditions, but as the saying goes "" If you ate today-Think a Farmer.

  • ci_lantro
    3 years ago

    TMR-Total Mixed Rations for Dairy Cows

    After reading this^ article, I realized that managing a dairy herd can be a very complex task.

    Note that the article discusses just one approach to feeding.

    Much too complex for me to have an opinion.

    I can't even determine for sure what the suspect ingredient is. Palm oil, palm fat, palmitic acid? Nor what the difference is amongst the three.

    My takeaway is that, so far, we have anecdotal complaints from Canadians about their butter not being spreadable. Yes, I live in Wisconsin and my butter doesn't spread in the winter either. And hasn't for the 20+ years that I have lived here.

    Are these Canadians perhaps Snowbirds who, in past years, have wintered south of the border? And who have forgotten that butter doesn't spread nicely during the winter?

    Where are the controlled studies comparing backyard cow 'organic' butter w/ mass produced commercial dairy butter? Comparing melting temperatures, spreading temperatures, etc.? Or, using butter characteristic data from 5, 10, 15 years ago w/ the product currently being produced?

    So we can determine if there really is a difference?

  • sleevendog (5a NY 6aNYC NL CA)
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    'Buttergate' has been going on for months. Most of 2020. Various butters were compared side-by-side by a recipe developer. This article has pics of her butters. Link, HERE Canada has warm summers.

    Over the holidays I had maybe 6 different butters due to availability and gifting. I left out overnight a tBsp of each and had just a minor percentage point of spreadability. Nothing obviously more firm. Nighttime temps are 60-62º in my kitchen.

  • fran1523
    3 years ago

    All that technical stuff aside, tell your friend that I only use butter. Butter spreads and margarine are not allowed in my refrigerator. I'm happy with good old American butter and leave it out overnight to be soft enough to spread.

  • Elmer J Fudd
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    In response to Tonya's comment, I think a lot of farmers seem to have a very emotional view about their undisputedly important role in any society that they don't understand others may not share. Are farmers more important than school teachers? Police and fire forces? Health workers? Truck drivers who spend time away from home to deliver goods we all want? Or others in many other roles? I don't think so. Most work roles are important, some more than others, but I don't think any special deference or special treatment (as farm support payments provide, among other things) is due to those engaged in food production or processing.

  • Elmer J Fudd
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    I've experienced (and was somewhat taken aback) seeing butter left out in friends' homes in cooler European locations (like the British Isles) where even indoor temps tend to be cooler than here. But I didn't know this was a practice on this side of the pond too. I don't think this practice is followed at all in my area that ranges from mild to moderately hot and if some do it, I've never seen it. We've always kept butter in the fridge. Isn't that why all fridges have a butter compartment? Do other Californians leave butter out or know people who do?

  • nickel_kg
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    My experience is that if your kitchen is about 72 degrees Fahrenheit or less, you can leave butter on the counter no problem. It's when the kitchen gets to 77 or above that it gets too squishy and goes back in the fridge.

    I've never kept butter long enough for it to spoil. Does it even do that?

    (edited to add: the stick of butter currently being consumed, is what I'm talking about. The additional sticks are kept in the fridge until it's their turn on the table. The extra extra boxes of butter are kept frozen.)

  • bpath
    3 years ago

    We keep a covered butter dish on the counter. The rest of the box is in the fridge. Backup boxes are in the freezer. A stick of butter is used up before it ever has a chance to “turn”!

  • bpath
    3 years ago

    UPDATE on DH’s butter spreadability experiment.

    DH bought two boxes of butter, one our standard made in Wisconsin, the other is from Ireland. The Irish box says the cows are pasture-raised, grass-grazing cows (“in lush, green meadows”.

    The Wisconsin butter went into the butter dish last night. The Irish butter went into the dish this morning. Two hours later, we spread both on bread. The Irish butter was decidedly softer and more spreadable. Now, according to the labels, the Irish butter has a bit more fat (although less cholesterol!). Was it the extra fat that made the difference?

    As to taste, well, we were making sandwiches so we didn’t do a side-by-side taste comparison, but that’s not the issue here (although I am the one who brought up butter from grass-fed cows tasting grassy, but that was from an America’s Test Kitchen taste test, so I don’t know. Maybe I will do that later.)

    I think another test would involve US and Canadian butters from pasture-raised, grass-grazing cows. On to the search for that.

  • floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
    3 years ago

    If we buy a new fridge we immediately remove the butter compartment as a waste of space 😉 The butter stays on the counter pretty much all year round. There are very, very few days in the year when it will melt.

  • krystalmoon2009
    3 years ago

    I keep my butter in covered dish on counter and it gets nice and soft, very easily spreadable. We use up a stick of butter a day, I usually buy store brand butter. Temp in house set at 70 year round.

  • ci_lantro
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    My butter dish lives on the counter. Like Floral, only a very few days & only in some summers does it ever go into the fridge.

    ETA that I don't want to keep it in the fridge for fear of the butter absorbing refrigerator odors.

    Butter is fat, water & salt except for unsalted obviously. Very little protein so it can't spoil. It can go rancid, taste bad but still be edible. I've never had rancid butter.

    I don't keep my cooking oil in the fridge--except for some delicate oils like sesame that will turn rancid quickly if not refrigerated. So, why the need to keep butter refrigerated? Except to keep it from melting in a hot climate?

  • plllog
    3 years ago

    Butter goes rancid in my kitchen if left out on the counter. Not pleasant. And while eating rancid things won't make you sick, they're not really good for you. When stick butter goes rancid it's from the outside (oxidation) in, so there's a foul golden ring around a butter colored core. It's not that much trouble to take the butter out when first you decide it's going to be used, so it's ready to spread when the toast is done.

    This is the first butter convo we've had where no one has brought up the butter bell. That's a countertop butter holder which sits upside down in a dish which has a small layer of water in it, which forms a tight seal, keeping the butter from going rancid while spreadable at room temperature. I've never used one--we don't do enough butter on bread spreading to bother--but everyone who's posted before about it gave it high marks.

    I have an airtight butter dish for use in the fridge, but I've taken to keeping the butter in a zip close sandwich bag. The butter dish is, um, utilitarian, and my actual butter box, which is as wide as the door, is full of cheese. I put the butter on top of it. :) BTW, the butter box in the fridge is supposed to keep the butter in the warmest part, so it's more malleable, which is usually the top of the door on the side it opens from (opposite the hinges) That's where mine came, but all the door is adjustable, so I have it lower. The top of the fridge is actually quite cold because of the layout of the vents.

  • lucillle
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    I guess the rancidity issue has to do with how long it is out, if one's house temps are not tropical. At my house a stick of butter lasts a couple days in its covered glass dish on the counter and in that time does not go rancid.

  • CA Kate z9
    3 years ago

    I'm in California Central Valley and my butter lives on the countertop 24/7. My house is typically 72 degrees year round. Even as a kid in the 50's our butter was left out, but then a stick of butter din't last much more than a day. LOL!

  • LoneJack Zn 6a, KC
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    ci_lantro wrote: I don't keep my cooking oil in the fridge--except for some delicate oils like sesame that will turn rancid quickly if not refrigerated

    I've never kept any oils in the fridge including sesame oil. I looked at my bottle and it doesn't say 'refrigerate after opening'. I only use it for Chinese stir fry and it's probably around 2 years old. It doesn't smell rancid at all to me. Now I'm wondering if I should toss it and buy a new bottle. I also don't keep my Grape seed or olive oil in the fridge.

    I rarely leave butter out. Only when I know we will want soft, spreadable butter with bread will I get it out to soften. Or if we are baking something like cookies that requires softened butter.

    Tonya - Ignore Elmer, I agree that farmers and ranchers live an exceptionally tough life and deserve our appreciation.

  • C Marlin
    3 years ago

    I grew up in Southern California with butter on the counter, never heard of regrigerating it. Now I rarely eat/use butter except in recipes so it stays in the refrigerator. I buy Kerrygold Salted for eating on bread, and unsalted Challenge for cooking.

  • roxsol
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    I keep my butter on the counter. I don’t refrigerate it.

    My mother did the same. However, my dad loved cold butter and would keep some in the fridge and would thinly slice it and eat it on cream crackers, sometimes with and sometimes without Branston Pickle.

  • ci_lantro
    3 years ago

    LoneJack, I've always kept sesame oil in the fridge because I read somewhere that you're supposed to! Never tested longevity outside the fridge. The open almost empty bottle in my fridge was purchased in February 2019 at 99 Ranch Market in Vegas...so it lasts me a while. This is a larger size than normally available around here--sometimes it is hard to even find. And outside of the 99 Ranch Market great price, it is usually pricey as well locally.




  • sjerin
    3 years ago

    We've always left butter "out" (in cupboard) too, unless it's very hot inside the house. I'm remembering a friend of one of my daughter's, who was horrified when she learned our butter dish lived outside of the refrigerator. She passed on using it.