One butter is only "sufficient" - and it's expensive
Around a year ago, it seemed as if butter had surprisingly mutated into a luxury good. That's how expensive it was in the meantime. Now it is affordable again. The only question now is whether the quality is right. Warentest knows the answer.
Just recently, a margarine test caused a stir due to its poor results. Now it's butter's turn - and the subject of tests. Stiftung Warentest provides information about this. Because it tasted 30 brands. Of these, 18 were mildly soured (the most widely sold), 6 were made from sweet cream and 6 from sour cream. Seven of them are organic products. At prices between 1.39 and 3.40 per 250 grams.
And the first thing that catches the eye is that the spreadable fat is once again significantly cheaper. In the past, a packet of butter from the cheapest brands used to cost around 2.30 euros. In the meantime, the price has fallen again significantly: 250 grams now cost an average of 1.40 euros. That's the way it should be, after all butter is an essential commodity.
Apart from that, it was a while ago that butter was notorious for being a cholesterol bomb. Quite a few consumers have therefore been putting margarine on their bread rolls since the 1980s. It was considered healthier because of its unsaturated fatty acids. The saturated fatty acids from cows, on the other hand, were thought to increase the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. A few decades later, butter has been rehabilitated. At least if it is consumed in moderation. This also applies to the plant-based alternative. The German Nutrition Society advises not to spread more than 30 grams of butter or margarine on bread per day. Otherwise, the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 acids should be appropriate when consuming fat. The former are usually significantly under-consumed.
24 butter products scored "good"
If this is taken into account, recent studies have shown that butter is a fattening and disease-causing agent. The animal lubricant - which is made from the cream of cow's milk - can therefore be consumed in moderation without worry. Provided the quality is right.
Which, according to the product test, is usually the case. A total of 24 butter products scored "good" in the test. In addition to appearance, smell, taste and mouthfeel - on the day on which the best-before date expired or shortly afterwards - the spreadability, the presence of harmful substances and germs as well as the declaration on the packaging were examined.
The test loser is the "Dairygold Original Irish Butter" for around 2.99 euros. Unlike what you would expect from Irish butter, it was not really spreadable, but was the second hardest in the test. It also smelled distinctly cheesy, tasted rancid and had an increased content of yeasts, molds and saturated mineral oil hydrocarbons (Mosh). The latter can accumulate in the body and the long-term health consequences are still unclear. Although other packets of butter also contained mosh, none of them, like Dairygold, exceeded the guideline value for food monitoring and the food industry. The overall verdict: "sufficient" (grade 4.3).
Good and cheap for 1.39 euros
The organic sweet cream butter from Alnatura (around 2.79 euros) leaked oil and tasted old. The spreadability left a lot to be desired. Overall, Stiftung Warentest found it "satisfactory" (score 3.5). The organic hay milk butter from Käse Rebellen (approx. €2.95) also leaked oil, smelled and tasted less aromatic and was slightly stale at the edges. Despite scoring 3.5 in the sensory test, it still managed a "satisfactory" 2.6 overall.
The best test result of 1.7 ("good") was achieved by "Lidl Milbona organic butter made from fresh cream", a sweet cream variant for around 2.59 euros. It even scored 1.5 in the sensory assessment - as did "Meggle Feine Butter" (1.70 euros, overall score 1.9). Other products that also scored "good" included the inexpensive "Penny Deutsche Marken-Butter", "Milsani Deutsche Markenbutter" from Aldi Süd, "KauflandK-Classic Deutsche Markenbutter" from Kaufland and "Landfein Deutsche Markenbutter" from Norma (all €1.39, overall score 2.0 and 2.1 respectively).
The advisory organization Stiftung Warentest recently conducted tests on various butter brands, evaluating their taste, spreadability, and other factors. Among the products tested, several budget-friendly options received high scores, making affordable butter a viable option for consumers.
As a result of these tests, several budget-friendly butter options, such as Penny Deutsche Marken-Butter and KauflandK-Classic Deutsche Markenbutter, were found to be of good quality, challenging the perception that expensive brands are the only reliable options for butter consumption.
Source: www.ntv.de
