Clowns dressed as butter chunks await the start of the 90th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan, New York.
REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
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- Canadians are wondering why recent butter has become hard and difficult to apply.
- Some food experts attribute this to the increased amount of palm oil used in cattle feed.
- Not everyone is convinced of it, and lobbying groups in the dairy industry are investigating.
Canadians have complained that butter has suddenly hardened recently and is no longer melting as it used to be.
Home cooks and food professionals who are concerned about this are online about this phenomenon, named “buttergate” (editor: “gate” is a commonly used ending when naming scandals). We talk at and are looking for an answer.
Something is up with our butter supply, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it. Have you noticed it’s no longer soft at room temperature? Watery? Rubbery? pic.twitter.com/AblDzGiRQY
– Julie Van Rosendaal (@dinnerwithjulie) February 5, 2021
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Something is happening to our butter. I will explore this. Did you notice that butter is no longer soft at room temperature? Is it watery? Is it like an eraser?
Some experts attribute it to palm oil
No studies have proven why butter is hard, but some consumers point out that it is due to increased use of palm oil in cattle feed.
Julie Van Rosendaal, a Canadian who has written about cooking, said on February 20th.Column contributed to The Globe and MailHe said that increased use of palm oil in cattle feed may have changed the firmness of butter.
He is a professor of food science at the University of Guelph and has obtained research funding from the Canadian Research Chair.Alejandro Marangoni“Recently, I’m definitely giving cows fats that are high in palmitic acid (the main component of palm oil),” he said in an interview with Rosendal.
“Palm oil definitely affects the texture of butter, including the increase in long-chain saturated fatty acids in milk fat.”
Montreal CTV NewsAccording to, adding palm oil to cattle feed is nothing new. Palm oil can increase milk fat, so it has been used in Canada for about 20 years.
But since the summer of 2020, more and more bread-baking households have increased demand for dairy products, and hundreds of dairy farmers across Canada have increased their use of palm oil to meet this demand.BBC reported。
Demand for butter increased by more than 12% in 2020, according to information from the BBC’s Daily Farmers of Canada.
Here’s a House The Jack Built style adventure through the global economy. There’s a pandemic. People are stuck at home and cooking and baking more. So they’re using more butter. Which means a higher milk demand. Which means increased feeding of milk cows …
— Maggie Koerth (@maggiekb1) February 24, 2021
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This is how the global economy is represented, such as “House built by Jack” (a type of word game that adds sentences). First there was a pandemic. Everyone stayed home and cooked and baked bread more than before. Then I started to use more butter. So I needed more milk. So I had to feed the cows more …
The use of palm oil is legal, but with the intake of saturated fatty acidsHeart diseaseIt is controversial because it is known to be related to.Also, the production of palm oilMay also damage the environmentThere is.
Dairy group is investigating
Senior Director, Agricultural Analysis Institute, Dalhousie UniversitySylvain CharleboisWritten byEditorial relating the use of hard butter and palm oilIs read by many people.
He argues that dairy makers should be more transparent about their ingredients. That’s because the industry gets a lot of government subsidies.
“Unlike other countries, milk is a public good in Canada,” he wrote.
“Dairy farmers have a government-approved exclusive production quota, and Canadian taxpayers have paid $ 1.75 million to keep high-quality dairy products available.”
Canadians want to know why butter is so hard.
Haven Ear-Egresitz
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The Daily Farmers of Canada, an industry groupStatement released on February 19He argued that palm products such as palm oil may be contained in dairy cows’ feeds in “limited amounts”, but have little effect on milk quality.
“When dairy cows are given palm oil supplements in Canada, they are usually only added in small amounts to the feed, which is estimated to increase less than 3% of palmitic acid, and the impact is very limited.”
Despite this, the group said it would set up a committee to further investigate the concerns.
There is also an opinion that it is hardened by the processing method
Not all food scientists are convinced that palm oil has hardened or completely changed the quality of Canadian butter.
Keith Warriner, a food microbiologist at the University of Guelph, believes that the way butter is processed may be the cause, “if you process butter too quickly, it can harden,” he told CTV. It was.
He also states that some may now have noticed that butter has hardened for several years.
Some people say on social media that butter doesn’t soften at room temperature because of the cold weather in Canada.
Okay… I thought it was just that my kitchen was cold or something… I even turned up the heat on that premise (really). But apparently the hard butter was because it was hard butter. WTF? Might be from ethically dubious palm oils in cow feed… ????????????https://t.co/1xPxjAnMA5
— The Passionate Friar (@PassionateFriar) February 24, 2021
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I thought it was because my kitchen was cold. That’s why I raised the temperature of the heater (really). But the hard butter was hard butter. What do you mean? May be due to ethically questionable palm oil in cattle feed …
Charlevoix thinks that might be the case.
He states in his editorial that some brands of Canadian butter, such as organic brands, are not solidified.
“Some people blame winter and cold, but the truth is even worse.’Buttergate’is not what the industry needs, nor is it suitable for Canadians.”
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[original:Canadian butter has gotten weirdly hard, won’t soften at room temperature, and nobody is sure why］
(Translation: Fumiko Nakata, Editing: Toshihiko Inoue)
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