Agri-food analyst at Dalhousie University Sylvain Charlebois, is churning up questions about the hardness of Canadian butter and believes some farm practices are raising ethical questions about the purity of this country’s dairy products.
>
"For months now, thousands of Canadians have taken to social media saying that they have noticed that butter is harder and does not get soft at room temperature. Not all Canadian butters are harder, but many of them are," Dr. Charlebois writes.
"Some people blame winter and the colder weather, but the truth is more troubling than that. Disturbing reports are now pointing at some practices on the farm that may have altered the quality of the butter we buy.
"Since last summer, thousands of dairy farmers have been giving more energy supplements to their herd.
"Sources suggest it has been going on for more than a decade, but the problem has become more apparent since August of last year when butter demand went up suddenly, forcing the dairy industry to produce more dairy fat.
"For many, the supplement of choice for cows is Palm oil.
"To explain it simply, palm oil given to dairy cows increases the proportion of saturated fat in milk compared to unsaturated fat, thus increasing the melting point of butter. This explains why butter made from cows fed with palm oil remains difficult to spread at room temperature.
So, if you wondered why butter is harder at room temperature, this is likely the most plausible reason why some of the butter in Canada seems to stay harder at room temperature.
"There is nothing illegal about giving palm oil to cows, though little research has been done on how giving palmitic acids to given to dairy cows could compromise the health of both animals and humans.
"So, what’s the bottom line? Dairy Farmers of Canada and the dairy board only have themselves to blame. Despite its dismal transparency track-record, it should have asked Ottawa to ban these products from the market, or at least openly condemned the practice. Another step in the right direction would be to see supply managed dairy farmers including Canadian grown oils in their feed additives over imported palm oil. However, they chose not to. So disappointing. "