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Baffled Canadians spread reports of 'hard' butter

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https://www.npr.org/2021/02/24/971018428...ard-butter

EXCERPTS: There's something off about the butter in Canada [...] For weeks, Canadians have increasingly churned up debate on social media with anecdotes about "hard" butter that fails to spread as easily as it once did...

[...] For food researcher Sylvain Charlebois, suspicion began last year when he noticed differences in comparing a organic stick of butter with a regular one. ... While he says that more testing is needed ... is convinced that an increased use in palmitic acid — a byproduct of palm oil that's commonly added to cow feed — is the most likely culprit...

[...] He now connects a sudden spike in consumer butter demand to what he says is an increased use of the palm oil fat on farms since this past summer. Palm-based cow food isn't new, he says ... Farmers regularly add the palmitic acid to animal feed as an energy supplement that allows cows to produce more butter fat content, he says. ... the pandemic put new pressure on dairy farmers. Butter sales in fact grew over 12% in 2020...

[...] To keep up with the recent surge in butter demand, Charlebois says that farmers have been boosting the amount of palm oil-based feed in cows' diets to step up supply. "Palmatic acids are actually quite expensive but they're cheaper than getting new cows in a barn for sure," he says. ... "Whether or not the butter is healthy ... we just don't know ... There's a complete disconnect between animal feed practices and how these food products impact the health of consumers."

This month, the Dairy Farmers of Canada addressed the recent reports of hard butter [...] Acknowledging the use of palm products, the group asserted that such ingredients "help provide energy to cows and no undesirable effects have been identified." NPR's multiple attempts to contact DFC went unanswered.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency regulations stipulate that butter products must contain at least 80% milk fat. While adding palm oil to butter is legal, Charlebois says the question now is, "Should it be legal?"

"A Buttergate is not what the industry needs, or what Canadians deserve," the food researcher wrote [...] On Wednesday, a group representing some of Canada's major dairy producers yielded to mounting consumer pressure by calling for a ban on palm-based dairy products. ... It's unclear whether the ban would be permanent... (MORE - details)
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