Is Butter Fungible?

I have recently purchased butter at both Jewel and Meijer. I had purchased the house brand at both stores.

I did notice that while the trade dress of both packages are different, the interior was the same. Upon further inspection, I noticed that each wrapper was printed with: Plant 55-307.

In government speak, 55 stands for the Chicago region. So does this mean that both brands were made at the same plant in the Chicago area?

I would ask a favor, please check your butter wrappers, and report to us the brand, and if it was made at plant 55-307.

sabersix wrote:I would ask a favor, please check your butter wrappers, and report to us the brand, and if it was made at plant 55-307.

Sabersix,

Before I'd even consider doing that, I'd want to know why and exactly what/who you mean by us.

Enjoy,
Gary

Economic knowledge is power.

And since I am the king of the world, I guess I just used the imperial "us".

sabersix wrote:Economic knowledge is power.

And since I am the king of the world, I guess I just used the imperial "us".

Interesting, glib/cute answer, but it really doesn't motivate me to start funneling info to you and your team of fungible factoid fanatics. (fanatic used tongue-in-cheek)

Enjoy,
Gary

Gary, don't look. That was easy.

Why? When comparison shopping, it is nice to know if the only difference between one stores brand, or a national brand, is the price.

I think it's basically a lock that all the house brands and probably some of the non-house-brands are made at that same plant. It certainly makes sense, doesn't it?

Anyway, the unsalted butter we buy 4lbs at a time from costco (for about $6.30) is from plant 55-307 as well. Butter freezes quite well, after all.

gleam wrote:Anyway, the unsalted butter we buy 4lbs at a time from costco (for about $6.30) is from plant 55-307 as well. Butter freezes quite well, after all.

Which Costco? The Randhurst one only seems to stock salted butter, which makes little sense. MrsF gets jittery if there are less than three pounds of butter in the freezer, five if we're approaching Christmas Cookie season.

Dutch Farms, 27-031. Purchased at Ultra Foods in Forest Park.

JoelF wrote:Which Costco? The Randhurst one only seems to stock salted butter, which makes little sense.

The one at Clybourn/Damen in Chicago. I've also noticed the lack-of-unsalted at the Bedford Park/Ford City costco south of Midway.

The Clybourn costco seems to be a lot less geared towards families, so instead of fruit rollups and lunchables, there are 12oz cans of V8, muir glen tomatoes, more international foods, etc. I dunno if it's a function of location, or just random.

Horizon Organic salted and unsalted (wrappers say Horizon Organic on them; on sale last weekend at Whole Paycheck), and Wild Oats organic salted (wrapper does not specify Wild Oats) all purchased in Evanston and all packaged at 31-212.

Near generic Dutch Farms salted butter purchased today at local produce store, $1.59/lb. Plant 27-037.

Consipiracy? WTC 7.

-ramon

Butter is indeed fungible. It is traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

The dairy plant codes are assigned by the USDA. The first 2 numbers denote a state or region. In the case of 55-307, the 55 stands for Wisconsin and the 307 stands for Madison Dairy Produce.

31-212 = West Point Dairy Products, West Point, Nebraska
27-031 = Associated Milk Producers, New Ulm, Minnesota

Here is a link to a list of plants that participate in the USDA grading program: http://www.ams.usda.gov/dairy/pltbk797.pdf

HI,

Since we are on the topic of butter. Land o'Lakes has new packaging for their butter, which acts as a barrier to keep the butter from absorbing whatever changing its flavor. I haven't tried it, though I adapted my own barrier system by keeping my butter in a zip-loc bag. It has achieved the goal of keeping the butter freshing tasting longer.

Regards,

Whole Foods 365 brand unsalted butter (purchased on Ashland in Chicago) comes from Plant #06-0053. I can't remember how much I paid for a pound, but I think it was on sale and the least expensive butter at WF that day.

(According to the handy chart link provided by d4v3, it came all the way from Modesto, Calif.)

OK, after reading this post I put down my Cadbury Turduckhen and ran to the fridge - I buy butter at the Aldi on Oakton, the code is 55-304. Just curious - how much did it cost you all? I believe it was $2.99/lb at the Aldi this week. Funny how this dairy thing between Jewel and Dominick's made news a couple years back and then was suddenly dropped.

I've always maintained that it was, indeed, price fixing. Even more interesting to find out we're paying for packaging, not product.

Am I the only one irritated that the same stuff we can get from right here in town also needs to come from as far away as Nebraska, California, etc. to be sold here? Waste not, want not!!

Just because it's made in the same plant doesn't mean it's the same product. Maybe each plant makes more than one type or quality of butter, depending on the label. This would be similar to the Vienna Beef situation (whereby they create different, specialty products for certain of their larger customers that differ from the stuff sold in retail outlets). Any evidence for or against this theory? Maybe somebody (not I) should sponsor a "Butter-Off" to compare the various labels coming out of a single butter plant.

I did a little search on the web and found this PDF of all dairy plant codes.

http://www.ams.usda.gov/dairy/pltbk797.pdf

If you want to know exactly which plant your butter is made at check it out.

Way back, when I started this thead, I was interested in finding out if the butter sold at, Jewel, Meijer, etc, was produced in the same plant, with probably, the same formula.

My interest in this was financial. That is, if the same product, in different trade dress, was priced differently, I wanted to know. Why should we spend more money than necessary.

But thank you for your interest, and based on the above information we have the knowledge to make intellegent decisions when buying butter.

No hidden agenda, just wanted to save a couple of bucks.

Well, butter imported from Denmark, Ireland, Belgium, or an Amish settlement are exceptions. For butter that I intend to eat on bread or add to finish a sauce, that's what I usually go with. Anyone can taste the difference. It tastes like dairy, as opposed to merely fat and salt. I particulalrly like the Kerry Gold stuff, despite the company's apparent heavy marketing budget. Corporate does not necessarily mean fungible, of course. I was interested but not entirely surprised to see the info above on run-of-the-mill US butter.

JeffB wrote:I particulalrly like the Kerry Gold stuff, despite the company's apparent heavy marketing budget. Corporate does not necessarily mean fungible, of course.

Kerry Gold is a brandname for the Irish Dairy Board (with offices in the north suburbs). So it is actually institutional and not corporate, but they do seem to have a huge budget. They function as a marketing cooperative for Irish dairy farmers. I guess, at least in the case of Irish butter, fungible doesn't necessarily mean bad.

http://www.idbusa.com/

Interesting. Is that true for the Danish stuff as well? Can't remember the name of the fairly ubiquitous stuff one sees around town.

Don't assume that because butter (or cheese) that comes from an Amish settlement is automatically better than what you buy im a supermarket.

From my experience, there can be a wide variety in the quality of the product depending on the producer.

JeffB wrote:Interesting. Is that true for the Danish stuff as well? Can't remember the name of the fairly ubiquitous stuff one sees around town.

That would be Lurpak. Based on its website, it appears that it may also be a national dairy board thing.

The one butter I've bought recently that I really, really loved was, I think, Mendoza Creamery, bought at Fox & Obel. (Google doesn't turn up the name, though-- am I a letter or two off?) I was kind of resistant to the idea that any butter was that much better than any other butter until I had it. Since then, though, I can't find regular (unsalted, actually) butter from them-- only things like cinnamon sugar butter or something. Anyone seen the stuff anywhere besides F&O and Bouffe, where I've only seen assorted flavors?

jlawrence01 wrote:Don't assume that because butter (or cheese) that comes from an Amish settlement is automatically better than what you buy im a supermarket.

From my experience, there can be a wide variety in the quality of the product depending on the producer.

Absolutely. These are very individualized products. My main point was that butter made by an Amish family or coop or whatever is not "fungible" in the sense that it is part of a US commodities market. The Amish butter available at the farmer's markets around town is pretty good, though.

Being an employee of the USDA, I get to read all kinds of very bad things about butter.
I can't say anymore, suffice it to say, I still eat it, but I am sort of afraid of it.
Here is a link to where the gen'l public can read all about it
(well, some of it at least). FSIS might be the place to start..
http://www.usda.gov/oig/rptsaudits.htm

I worked in a state hospital and since we served an indigent population, we received truckloads of USDA Commodity butter. Just what I needed in a hospital with a population with significant heart/cholestrol/hypertension problems - butter. And not very good butter at that - large amount of water when melted.

Geez, some people really EAT generic butter?

I haven't tried it since 1986 - but to me generic butter was one of my most dismal failures for purchasing generic. Breakfast cereal was another. But the seedless raspberry jam tasted just like the Knott's Berry Farms one...

I still haven't gotten around to fancy butters, being more of an olive oil fan. BUT - that new flavor protect wrapper on Land O Lakes really makes a difference! It tastes nothing like it used to - is SO much better!

Oh, and when I want fancy butter to spread on bread (which I've gotten my Mom, one of my sister-in-laws and one of my nephews hopelessy addicted to) - I go to Oberweiss and buy the heavy whipping cream, toss it into the food processor until I have solid and liquid.

I do try to get much of the excess liquid out with a strainer, but I don't press it all out.

When you spread it on bread the liquid still peeps out a bit - and that's a favorite aspect of it for everyone. But that's bread spread, I'd never bake with it.

And I thank Alton Brown for getting me to try to make butter. They sure don't air THAT episode a lot!

Nancy

gleam wrote:The Clybourn costco seems to be a lot less geared towards families, so instead of fruit rollups and lunchables, there are 12oz cans of V8, muir glen tomatoes, more international foods, etc. I dunno if it's a function of location, or just random.

I don't know, I see a lot of families with kids buying lots of TP, OJ, Milk and Diapers there