Food & Drink

100% Canadian Butter

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  • Dec 26th, 2022 5:08 pm
Member
Mar 22, 2020
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100% Canadian Butter

I had bought a lot of Natrel on sale and have recently run out. Shopping from home has made it a bit trickier but I’m noticing a lot of non-Canadian butter in my list of options.

Companies can either label 100% Canadian Milk themselves or use the Blue dairy logo if they apply.

In contrast, importer butter will have a Maple Leaf on it.

These are the major/ national butter brand that’s are 100% Canadian Milk that I am aware of:

- Walmart’s Great Value
- Natrel
- Gay Lea

Does anyone know of any other brands? (I haven’t been able to find a single Canadian sourced butter at my local Loblaws so I’m wondering if I’m missing any major brands).
68 replies
Deal Addict
Feb 22, 2016
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You'll be hard-pressed to find imported butter at retail in this country given that it's slapped with 300% (yes, THREE HUNDRED PERCENT) import duty. What imported butter have you found? If you did it's probably a hell of a lot more than $5/lb which is what the local stuff sells for.... You don't even have to look for the cartel cow logo, if it's under $10 a pound it's Canadian.

If you manage to find Kerrygold (Ireland) or Plugra (American) then you can say you've seen foreign butter. Those two brands are easy to find at almost any American supermarket. I've bought Kerrygold butter on special at ALDI. (I know, Kerrygold and Dubliner cheese you find here; it's often on sale at Costco. But good luck with the butter).
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Mar 22, 2020
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EastGTARedFlagger wrote: You'll be hard-pressed to find imported butter at retail in this country given that it's slapped with 300% (yes, THREE HUNDRED PERCENT) import duty. What imported butter have you found? If you did it's probably a hell of a lot more than $5/lb which is what the local stuff sells for.... You don't even have to look for the cartel cow logo, if it's under $10 a pound it's Canadian.

If you manage to find Kerrygold (Ireland) or Plugra (American) then you can say you've seen foreign butter. Those two brands are easy to find at almost any American supermarket. I've bought Kerrygold butter on special at ALDI. (I know, Kerrygold and Dubliner cheese you find here; it's often on sale at Costco. But good luck with the butter).
Actually my understanding is that products such as butter can contain all or partially imported milk.

I prefer the Canadian legislation around things like hormones so I want butter that is made from 100 % Canadian milk. From what I understand, if butter doesn’t have the Canadian dairy logo or isn’t labelled 100% Canadian milk then is may/ probably has imported milk. Same applies to cheese.

And at times Canada has imported a lot of butter. The Toronto Star did an article about how much butter we imported from the US a couple of years ago (2017?) due to a butter shortage in Canada.

Canada also allowed US milk in for a period of time (I think over a year?) by one company while they were setting up in Canada. Canadian milk isn’t labelled Canadian because all milk is supposed to be Canadian but that milk wasn’t labelled any differently.

So yes I want to be sure that my butter is made from 100% Canadian milk and I am pretty sure that isn’t a given.

I did look up Lactancia butter and their website says their butter uses 100% Canadian milk. The gov’t regs allow for the Label so I’m not sure why they aren’t using it.
Deal Addict
Feb 22, 2016
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Try Irish butter first, then get back to me on the superiority of cartel product. *
Last edited by MrDisco on Nov 9th, 2020 2:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: rude
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Aug 29, 2011
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Azorean butter is pretty darn good too.
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Apr 26, 2013
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EastGTARedFlagger wrote: Try Irish butter first, then get back to me on the superiority of cartel product. *
Give it a rest.

You can buy imported dairy products. If you really think taking the "cartel" down would bring you cheaper prices you're mistaken as many dairy products are already imported from the USA and the prices haven't gone down on cheese or cream for instance, or Coca Colas milk line and they're not paying high tariffs because of the trade deal.

Same as when everyone rejoiced because Target was coming to bring low prices, this is the Canadian market were they can charge more for the same or inferior products. Companies know what Canadians are willing to pay and will price their product similarly to current offerings.

As for Kerry Gold butter I've gotten it straight from Ireland and I can tell you from my experience it isn't some sort of golden elixir but many do like it, you can get grass-fed Canadian butter if that's your fancy.
Last edited by MrDisco on Nov 9th, 2020 2:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: quote was edited
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May 30, 2010
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I posted this in another thread, but here it is again:
Canadian butter must contain a minimum of 80% butterfat to be called butter. And most manufacturers stick to that, for costs but also for consistency reasons so all regular butters can be used interchangeably in most recipes. In most of Europe, the minimum is 82% and can go as high as 84%, that little difference can make or break a recipe.

That 2% - 4% butterfat difference is significant when baking due water content, and taste when eating spread on bread due to a fattier mouthfeel. Salt is also a factor, but it's not regulated nor standardized.

While I agree that European butters are usually better, there are a lot of mediocre butters out there. They just may not be imported here. I also agree that a lot of supposedly 100% Canadian milk butters, may be adulterated with "milk products" derivatives that comes from below the 49th parallel and still be considered "100% Canadian milk".
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Jul 29, 2005
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If you are adamant of having 100% Canadian butter, you can easily make your own.

Purchase heavy cream, and just shake shake shake in a jar or container until it turns into butter.
Can't get more canadian-made than that.
My food blog - Reggie The Food Critic.
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Raggie wrote: If you are adamant of having 100% Canadian butter, you can easily make your own.

Purchase heavy cream, and just shake shake shake in a jar or container until it turns into butter.
Can't get more canadian-made than that.
Have you actually tried doing that yourself? I have, and the results were nasty.

Short pasteurization (high heat, shorter time) has may more impact on the fat then long pasteurization (low heat, longer time). Commercially available cream is mostly short pasteurized and then supplemented with an emulsifier/thickener to make them shelf stable.
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my0gr81 wrote: Have you actually tried doing that yourself? I have, and the results were nasty.

Short pasteurization (high heat, shorter time) has may more impact on the fat then long pasteurization (low heat, longer time). Commercially available cream is mostly short pasteurized and then supplemented with an emulsifier/thickener to make them shelf stable.
I remember making it in grade school, was alot of fun! We added food colouring (such as red or blue or green, etc. To our butter. Looked gross, but tasted good!
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Raggie wrote: I remember making it in grade school, was alot of fun! We added food colouring (such as red or blue or green, etc. To our butter. Looked gross, but tasted good!
Probably, in those days, when whipping cream, was actually just that, cream and nothing else. Also, there was a time, where slow pasteurization was the norm, as emulsifiers and thickeners were truly frowned upon in dairy products. Nowadays, most don't even read the ingredients list or don't care if it contains a small amount of them. I have to admit, I do read the ingredients, to use them to my advantage. For example, 10% coffee cream can make a mean ice cream, once you factor in the emulsifying effect of the carrageenan and thickening effect of the guar gum and supplement with whipping cream to reach the proper fat ratio.
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my0gr81 wrote: Probably, in those days, when whipping cream, was actually just that, cream and nothing else. Also, there was a time, where slow pasteurization was the norm, as emulsifiers and thickeners were truly frowned upon in dairy products. Nowadays, most don't even read the ingredients list or don't care if it contains a small amount of them. I have to admit, I do read the ingredients, to use them to my advantage. For example, 10% coffee cream can make a mean ice cream, once you factor in the emulsifying effect of the carrageenan and thickening effect of the guar gum and supplement with whipping cream to reach the proper fat ratio.
If you want to avoid those emulsifiers, you should consider organic products such as Organic Meadow, Harmony, Farm Boy, etc.. Its simple to find a solution if you look a bit.
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Mar 22, 2020
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Thanks for the suggested brands.

As for the other suggestions, while I could make my own butter, I really just want to buy Canadian butter. I am also not suggesting that everyone should follow suit or that Canadian butter is the best butter of all butters in the world. It’s just what I want to buy and I’m trying to understand how to verify origin now that the US is allowed to import over 3% of the total milk production under the new agreement.

From what I can tell, producers must meet gov’t criteria to put “100% Canadian Milk” on their product (if they decide not to apply for the dairy logo).

Of the brands identified in the thread, Lactancia is the only major brand I can find locally. I think I will email them and ask why their website says 100% Canadian milk but their butter doesn’t.

I am currently buying organic milk and yogurt while sticking with Canadian butter and cheese. That’s the balance of price and substance I am comfortable with.

What I am really trying to understand is why so many companies are saying in their websites that they use 100% Canadian milk but won’t label their products.

I also am noticing that Walmart has lots of dairy logo items and Loblaws has very few.

I do think there must be a lot of origin unknown under the Loblaws banner? For example, No name cream cheese has the logo but the butter doesn’t. Also I am pretty sure my last bag of PC Milk had the logo but my new bag doesn’t. It also seems that all the PC/ No name items still have the old dairy logo. So I am wondering are they phasing the logo out at Loblaws? And if so is it because they are changing the source of their milk or are they just cutting ties with the logo? I think I am going to have to email Loblaws to find out.
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my0gr81 wrote: Have you actually tried doing that yourself? I have, and the results were nasty.

Short pasteurization (high heat, shorter time) has may more impact on the fat then long pasteurization (low heat, longer time). Commercially available cream is mostly short pasteurized and then supplemented with an emulsifier/thickener to make them shelf stable.
We do it quite frequently and it is so much better than any of the butter we have been able to find. Plus you get the buttermilk for cooking. I love it, but it’s time consuming. I found a very nice 38% heavy cream which is even better, but more expensive, so I get the Costco whipping cream (35%) and get amazing results.
On a 'smart' device that isn't always so smart. So please forgive the autocorrects and typos. If it bothers you, then don't read my posts, but don't waste my time correcting me. If you can get past the typos, then my posts generally have some value.
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appkidak wrote: grassfedmeatsontario
grass fed butter
I make ghee with this, and works well for this purpose , and for general cooking.
Can you taste the difference in the ghee between some made with a generic butter, and another batch made with grass fed, organic origin cream butter? Ghee is interesting, as technically, the majority of the flavor is in the milk solids, but those get clarified as the butter is slowly boiled to evaporate the water away, and the milk solids are filtered to leave the butter fat behind. I've heard from a lot of people that they can taste the difference, so...

BTW, you can absolutely taste the difference when spreading butter on a fresh slice of bread, specially if the butter is room temperature soft. High end butter FTW, on a slice of bread, on top of warm biscuits. My most guilty pleasure is a dollop each of sweetened condensed milk and butter, scooped with pieces of a warm deep fried Indian flat bread called puri. I am not even from India, and the first time I tried that, I couldn't believe how good it was. Not healthy, but at that point, who cares, it was that good.
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Mar 22, 2020
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Kiraly wrote:
Never heard of that brand. Try Dairyland, Lucerne, or Lactantia.
Gay Lea does have the dairy logo - so it is a brand using Canadian milk.
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Canoes4Fun wrote: Gay Lea does have the dairy logo - so it is a brand using Canadian milk.
Can you post a picture of link to this logo?
I smile when I see container ships sailing past my house laden with stuff made in China
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Mar 22, 2020
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thriftshopper wrote: Can you post a picture of link to this logo?
Here is a link to the dairy logo: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/dairy- ... -1.3718640.

As I’ve mentioned this is a voluntary program. If a manufacturer doesn’t want to go through the review process they can also write 100% Canadian Milk on their packaging. That wording is controlled by the Gov’t of Canada so the manufacturer has to be able to prove that this is indeed accurate to use the wording.

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