Irish butter is a high-quality dairy product, highly valued around the world for its taste, texture and for being healthier than other options. The tradition of making butter in Ireland goes back centuries, and today Irish butter is one of the most popular on the international market. Irish butter is made with fresh cow’s milk, sourced from natural grass-fed herds. No stable cows that spend their lives in miserable enclosures. That’s a sad American invention. This gives it a unique and distinctive flavor, characterized by its softness, creaminess and a slight hint of acidity. In addition, its consistency is firm and soft on the palate, which makes it perfect for spreading on bread or using in the kitchen. Until this month, you could grab a couple of jars of Irish butter at Costco in your weekly shopping, but they stopped showing up to the surprise of customers.
Many customers began to tell on social media that the Irish butter began to be missing, or is no longer available at all. Why did Costco make this controversial decision? The reason is very different from the one you imagine. Well, if the company had not done that, it would have faced various legal problems, regarding the health of its customers.
Why Irish Butter Has Disappeared From Costco Shelves?
Irish butter is produced following a handmade and careful process, which ensures the quality of each batch. Not only that, but it also has a protected designation of origin, which means that it can only carry the “Irish butter” label if it meets the quality standards and is produced in Ireland.
So, if you find Irish butter in your local store, it’s absolutely guaranteed that it is made in Ireland, following the traditional methods and respecting the cows’ health and integrity. All these carefully observed steps will also guarantee you that you’ll get intense taste in every recipe you prepare with it. If costumers love it, why did Costco stop selling it? Well, here’s the actual truth, and it’s less scandalous of what you could expect. But, it was a decision to take care of your health. For real.
Costco stores in California and New York, pulled from shelves this butter due to concerns about its aluminum packaging. This type of packaging could violate new state regulations banning perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in food packaging.
Will Kerrygold Butter Disappear From All the Costco Stores?
Both California and New York have recently enacted laws to ban so-called “forever chemicals,” which are believed to pose a risk to human health, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Other states are also adopting similar rules this year, according to a Bloomberg Law report, so, it is possible that this or other products will be removed from shelves soon.
A Kerrygold spokesperson has recently stated that, following this regulation, and to take care of the costumers’ health, the company “made the responsible decision to reformulate some of our packaging”. Meanwhile, Kerrygold had temporarily halted shipments to the US “to ensure that no impacted product would be on shelves by the time the new state regulations in New York and California came into effect,” according to local news.
In short, the popular Kerrrygold Irish butter will not go back to Costco shelves, at least, for a couple of months, while the company reviews this packaging issue.