Kerrygold, What Are You Doing Putting Canola Oil In Grass-Fed Butter?

I was in my local Spartanburg, South Carolina Walmart last week to pick up some more of my favorite Kerrygold butter since they sell it there for just under $3 a stick (the grocery store wants $5.50 for the same product). When I walked to the back left-hand corner of the store where this is stocked, I noticed there was a tub with the Kerrygold name on it right next to the salted and unsalted sticks they sell and so I picked it up. It was similar to the Naturally Softer Salted Kerrygold butter (there’s nothing added to it making it softer, they simply churn it more slowly to create a spreadable product) I’ve found at Sam’s Club, but smaller. So naturally I assumed it was the same thing…but it wasn’t even close. What I discovered looking at the label was quite frankly a bit shocking to me as a fan of the Kerrygold brand of butters. It seems the Kerrygold company has made the decision to mix their amazing grass-fed butter with canola oil! Yep, you heard me right–Kerrygold now has a version of their butter that is intentionally made with a chemically-processed, genetically modified, prone to oxidation, pro-inflammatory, Vitamin E-depleting, pro-aging, thyroid hormone-destroying substance that is not appropriate for human consumption (read more about why canola oil isn’t optimal for your health in this blog post from Caitlin Weeks at “Grass Fed Girl”).

My buddy Tom Naughton from “FAT HEAD” posted this video about how canola oil is made that will very likely shock people who think this is a healthy fat for them to be consuming. This is the TRUTH about canola oil nobody wants you to know about:

Now I know a few of you business-minded people are probably thinking, “What’s the big deal, Jimmy? Kerrygold is just a company attempting to expand their customer base by making available a wider array of products to meet consumer demand. This product doesn’t bother me because I’m not going to be buying it.” As a business owner myself, I realize the wisdom in a marketing strategy of creating a wider tent to increase your share of the proverbial piece of the pie by appealing to the most people with your product selection. But seeing as the low-carb, Paleo, primal, real food, ketogenic community has helped put Kerrygold on the map so to speak in the past few years by speaking so positively about the quality of their grass-fed butters being set apart from their competition, this move seems to greatly contradict that image that they are a company who understands why real butter alone is good for people to be consuming (curiously, this canola oil blend and their reduced-fat version do not appear among their list of butter products on their website). This move to add canola oil may actually turn off many more of their existing customers than it will turn on new customers.

But I have to ask an important question here–is there really such a HUGE demand for a product like this or is Kerrygold simply testing it out to see how it would do in our fat-phobic American culture who might buy into a blended butter over a product that is 100% butter made from cream and salt? When I posted this to my Instagram account, the comments section blew up from my followers there with concerned feedback like “why mess with a good thing,” “don’t do that to butter,” and a man from Ireland who stated “we don’t get (the canola oil blend) in Ireland, where Kerrygold comes from.” To their credit, KerrygoldUSA chimed in as well seeing all the concerns from my followers and here’s what they said about this:

Again, from a business standpoint I understand why a company like Kerrygold would want to do this and they articulated it in their statement above. Let’s take a look at each of their reasons for doing this and why I think they might be missing the boat here:

1. “We’re simply providing more choices”

Fair enough. Expand your product line by adding herbs and spices as you already have. But when you put canola oil in it, you’ve totally changed this from a healthy product to one that most enlightened real food consumers will avoid like the plague. It’s no longer butter and, in my eyes, is just as bad as those fake butter products like the ones MollyAnn Wymer mocked in this hilarious YouTube video last week:

2. “Butter that’s more spreadable”

Ummmm, isn’t that why you made this product, Kerrygold? Plus, butter can be left out on the counter for an hour and easily become soft enough to spread easily on virtually anything. I suppose people are so used to using margarine out of a tub that they expect this feature in their butter, but there are ways to make it softer to spread just fine without adding something that is highly inferior to it for that purpose.

(I have to ask–How exactly is this product “suitable for vegetarians”?)

3. “Convenient”

Huh? If they’re referring to having it in a tub as the “convenient” part, then they’ve already made that available without the added canola oil. Any and all of Kerrygold’s other products are just as good, so I’m not seeing why this one is better than those.

4. “A lower price point”

While this may seem like a benefit, it’s actually a tell-tale sign of the devaluing of their original product. Yes, Kerrygold butter is more expensive than regular butter and margarine products. But it’s a high-quality, grass-fed imported Irish butter that is miles ahead of the typical American butter and the cost of the product is reflected in that. But the reason the canola oil blend is less expensive is because they add a cheap source of man-made fat to it. It would be like taking a beautiful cut of filet mignon, cutting it in half, and breading it thickly with a whole grain mixture to lower the price. Yes, it would cost less, but did you get more than you bargained for? Absolutely and not for the better.

Looking at the imagery and tone of this television ad for Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter, it makes their decision to make a canola oil blend version all the more perplexing:

You know what I’d love to see Kerrygold do to expand their customer base without sacrificing what sets them apart from their competitors? Tell people what is GOOD about their butter, why saturated fat is actually healthy, why grass-fed butter is superior to the pale, white butter that is typical on grocery store shelves, and so much more. This is an excellent opportunity for them or any other company promoting products made of simple, real food ingredients to boast of the benefits that come from consuming their products rather than trying to be politically correct by replacing the saturated fat with a supposedly “healthy” oil. Grass-fed butter is good enough on its own without contaminating it with something that will never be good.

If Kerrygold truly takes fan input “very seriously,” then we need to let them know why this concerns us. You can share your feedback with them on their Contact Us page, on Twitter, on Instagram, and on Facebook. Be polite and respectful in your comments and make your voice heard why the Kerrygold butter with canola oil product is a very bad idea. Let me know if you get a response from them.