First almond butter hit the scene and helped consumers to see that there was a world beyond the familiar(and beloved) peanut butter. Next came cashew and sunflower.
The trend was exhilarated by the consumer desire to avoid palm oil, an ingredient whose sourcing is associated with deforestation and loss of animals like orangutans, tigers, and elephants. As a result of that demand coupled with creative product response, operators and consumers alike will have access to everything from watermelon seed butter, to flavored variations of nut butters, to chickpea butters.
The common element is super basic: must be spreadable and creamy. Beyond that, all options are on the table—literally.
But with the rise of nut allergies in children and schools and airlines going nut-free to avoid health risks and lawsuits, exploring nut butter alternatives also helps create a safe space for customers who typically have to be wary of eating out.Spreadable pleasures don’t end with butters either. Anything that can be spread with a knife and enhances the flavor or texture of food can be a butter alternative. Bacon jam, pimento cheese, tapenade, alouette cheese, confit, fruit spreads and preserves, marmite and vegemite, rillettes, pate; all prove that butter isn’t the only friend out there for bread.
With the rise of Keto diets based on fats, bullet proof coffee has proved to be the new coffee specialty leaving room for a new breed of butters with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and grass-fed dairy.
But the nostalgic block butter has made a come back. That’s partly down to block butter’s strong associations with baking and scratch cooking thanks to the surge in demand for home baking ingredients that started to come resurge during the phandemic but it will stay longer as teleworking becomes a norm.
The major players in the grass-fed butter market include Anchor Butter, Organic Valley, Arla Foods, Fonterra, Rumiano, Graziers Products, Vital Farms and the popular Irish brand Kerrygold. Irish butter is a European-style butter that comes directly from Ireland. It’s made from grass-fed cow’s milk and has a higher fat content than regular butter, which gives it a richer texture. Most of the time, Irish butter is grass-fed butter.
In 2029 the flagship butter and dairy label Kerrygold generated more than €1 billion in sales, making it Ireland’s first billion euro food brand. Perhaps in part because, was forced to rise the price of Kerrygold butter in the US market after the president, Donald Trump, slapped 25 per cent tariffs on a range of EU food exports. The move saw the price of a half pound of Kerrygold butter in the US rise from $3 to $4, twice the price of market rivals. Regardless, it is now the number two butter brand there, selling roughly three million packets a week.
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