What puzzles me is why do they list water in the ingredients list if it isn't an ingredient?
st_allie,
Mar 24, 6:51pm
You don't happen to know which product they are talking about do you? I'll have a look in the supermarket next time I'm in there. . if someone can give the product name?
bedazzledjewels,
Mar 24, 7:06pm
Well, most of the butters you find in the supermarket list their ingredients as cream, salt and water (not sure of the order, but hopefully water is last! ). Tararua is one that simply lists cream and salt. Interesting isn't it!
st_allie,
Mar 24, 7:14pm
yeah it is. . I mean butter is just butter to me. . never thought to check the ingredients til now. I have been keeping an eye on the weights of products though. . There's some sneaky changes going on for sure!
bedazzledjewels,
Mar 24, 7:15pm
Agree - lots of changes to weights!
buzzy110,
Mar 24, 7:44pm
Here's what happens and don't get all nasty on me. Fonterra loves the low-fat regime that predominates our thinking. From milk they can extract most of the fat and sell the resulting watery liquid as 'healthy, low fat milk' for a profit. They don't then throw away all that fat. It is useful and can make them more money. It can be used to 'stretch' other products, making the even more profitable.
This is called (by me) The Good Enough standard.
They put that extra fat into cream and make another profit on the cream that once upon a time was only gleam in a Dairy Executives eye. Too bad that the product is not exactly what we expect. It looks Good Enough so you just have to suck it.
But that isn't the end of it. Excess fat simply pours out of the milk and our clever 'eye gleamers' have learned how to put it into butter as well. The butter no longer behaves exactly as we would like and sometimes smells rancid but hey, 'That's Good Enough' so suck it up.
So, until we get rid of all this low fat nonsense we will continue to be sold second rate dairy foods from our biggest producer of dairy products because they can sell one product twice over.
Welcome to the brave new world low fat world folks.
st_allie,
Mar 24, 8:02pm
I don't think anyone will get nasty buzzy110. .
I'm more interested in finding out exactly what's going on with the butter. My fridge has whole fat butters and cheeses. Surely if the wrapper on the butter says 'cream, salt'. . that's all that should be in it, now we have the laws stating that all ingredients have to be displayed? Is there a link to manufacturing processes somewhere about how fonterra are producing products?
alternatively. . does anyone buy organic butters? . . and is there a substantial difference ?
buzzy110,
Mar 24, 8:05pm
No. I have no link. This was told to me by a manager at the Fonterra factory in Hamilton one night when he'd had too much to drink (I don't drink so have a sharp memory).
I'm not sure whether those laws are comprehensive enough. If they can get away with fudging they will. It took a lawsuit in England to make Fonterra change their labelling of spreadable butter. They lost. They were not allowed to call anything that wasn't just cream and salt Butter. We need real laws like that here.
st_allie,
Mar 24, 8:12pm
thanks buzzy,
At this point I have had no issues with tararua butter however I may be just fooling myself! hehehhe
Supermarket day is friday for me. . so I will find an organic butter to compare to the tararua this weekend, as saturday is baking day. Will do two lots of muffins or something and see if there is a discernable difference.
fair enough. . however I'm not sure how long butter is stored for before it hits the shops. . wouldn't they have a quality control and a standard for the butter?
If I'm comparing two butters on the same shelf. . they should be comparable despite the end of season and cows drying off?
emseacows,
Mar 24, 9:25pm
known fact - cows milk changes consistency over the lactation period. At this time of the season fat content% is rising. Generally has nothing to do with what they are being fed, mostly to do with the stage of pregnancy they are at. Protein, on the other hand, has loads to do with what they are being fed.
Love to see a label that says water on the butter package. It has me intrigued.
maxwell.inc,
Mar 24, 9:44pm
Then I suggest next time your in the supermarket pick up any yellow or white wraped brand excluding Tararua and Anchor and you will find
Ingredients: Cream, water, salt.
(just checked the ones in the fridge and freezer... Tararua and Anchor. . both Cream, salt. . seems anchors changed and no longer adding water (as I remember the last block I used of Anchor had water on the label)
gragra1,
Mar 24, 9:45pm
Yes butter contains cream salt and water. The water is not added though as all foods and biological beings contain water. Water is the essence of life. Not sure where harrislucinda is coming from but as cows volume of milk gets less the fat content increases. example is spring milk solids % was 6% and when I dried off it was 12%.
emseacows,
Mar 24, 9:52pm
cheers maxwell - I shall look for one...
I would rather see it in black in white written, than a 'claim' that it was and now it isnt. its quite hard to add water to butter.
maxwell.inc,
Mar 24, 9:58pm
try pams, rolling meadow, the gold foiled one (definately had water on the label last week! ) and a few of the other ones. . in fact as I am a avid label checker up until today Tararua was the only one that didn't have water on the label, and I have avoided all the other brands because of that fact. . MIL bought the Anchor so I checked. . good to see they are no longer 'fluffing up' the butter with water.
uli,
Mar 24, 10:14pm
Yes - the water IS added: "All butter, margarine and spreads are water in oil emulsions. Margarine and spreads contain added emulsifiers such as lecithin and monoglycerides to aid in the emulsion preparation. Butter in contrast contains milkfat lecithin, a natural emulsifier. " http://www.foodworks.co.nz/oilsfats/library2.htm
And in an American newspaper it is more clearly written: " The Government requires butter to be at least 80 percent butterfat. The rest is water. "Our butter is 80 percent butterfat, " said Jerry Klose, the operations manager for Land O'Lakes, the only brand sold nationwide in supermarkets. "If you put more than 80 percent fat in, you're just giving money away, unless you price the product higher. " As cream is churned into butter, the water that is naturally in the cream separates out. In the final stage of butter making, water is added (or brine for salted butter) to adjust the level of butterfat. " http://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/22/garden/butter-bites-back. h tml? pagewanted=1
It seems that nowadays in most countries the fat content is about 80%, the rest is water.
While 100 years ago one was aiming at 87% ... Here is an interesting old newspaper article comparing the different butters: http://paperspast. natlib. govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast? a=d& d=OW19020122. 2. 11. 8&l=mi&e=-------10--1----0-all
st_allie,
Mar 24, 10:34pm
uli, interesting NYTimes article. . particularly the prices of a pound of butter in US dollars. . different brands and prices along with blind taste tests on the last page.
that past paper was upholding NZ butter as tops. . @ 90% fat content. . interesting that cake richness was measured in pounds of butter added. So using 100lbs of standard butter would be equal to 96 and a half pounds of NZ butter. .
a good read. . thanks for the links :)
uli,
Mar 25, 12:55am
Yeah - I thought it would be interesting for some. I always find it disgusting to melt some butter for butterfat/ghee and having nearly a third of buttermilk in the pan. Waste of money really. Time to get fit enough again to get a Jersey again ...
st_allie,
Mar 25, 1:44am
uli,
have you considered trying an organic butter at all? I'm certainly going to investigate what is out there and ask a few more questions too. If I can locate anything with a higher fat content. . I'll post it for you. .
bedazzledjewels,
Mar 25, 1:47am
I found this organic one. How's does it stack up in quantity of fat by comparison?
http://www.ridge.co.nz/ridge-organic-butter
st_allie,
Mar 25, 1:55am
I have sent them an email asking about fat content and also if it's available in retail outlets, or whether you purchase it online.
so we'll have to wait and see what the reply is
cheers for that :)
bedazzledjewels,
Mar 25, 1:56am
There's a link at the side of that page I posted, with 'where to buy' info.
st_allie,
Mar 25, 2:16am
oops missed that lol. . I see it's stocked at the local pak n save. . and that's where I'm heading tomorrow anyway. . will see what else is on the shelves there too. .
uli,
Mar 25, 2:37am
Well it says: Fat Total 82g per 100g - so thats 82% fat and 18% water LOL :)
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