Big Government at work: FDA asks consumers to return improperly labeled butter for refund.
When President Donald Trump takes office in January, he is going to have many fresh examples of bureaucratic over-reach and inanity to point to when the leftists complain about his ambitious ‘government efficiency’ plans.
The disgraceful behavior of the Federal Emergency Management Agency team members who skipped the homes of Trump supporters may likely be the left’s “January 6th” moment.
Many voters are still angry over Peanut the squirrel and Fred the raccoon, social media sensations, who were both euthanized by New York state authorities after their owner’s home was raided. This event likely contributed to Trump receiving over 40% of the vote in that state, the best Republican performance in New York since 2004.
Now comes news that Costco recalled nearly 80,000 pounds of butter due to labels lacking the necessary “Contains Milk” allergen warning on its packaging, despite containing cream as an ingredient.
Costco was forced to recall nearly 80,000 pounds of butter because the label failed to mention that the kitchen staple contains milk — and many social media users are rolling their eyes at the dairy dilemma.
The FDA sent out an initial recall for 79,200 pounds of Kirkland Signature butter due to the undeclared allergen in October. Packages for both the salted and unsalted Kirkland Signature Sweet Cream Butter list cream as an ingredient, but do not include an allergy warning that the butter “Contains Milk.”
The bizarre recall has left many internet users scratching their heads. The most common comment: “It’s butter.”
Back when I was young, our school trips were to farms and historic sites. We learned about how food is made. I even recall churning cream during a visit, which resulted in gloriously delicious butter.
I assume everyone knows that butter comes from cow’s milk. If that isn’t the case, then I would like to know why.
I suspect it would be because our dreadful woke-educational complex no longer offers school trips to farms or colonial history sites. If so, this would be another example for the Trump team to use, this time when they need to explain why they are restructuring the nation’s educational system.
Furthermore, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) offered an astonishing recommendation about the butter that had already been bought without the proper labeling.
The FDA advised shoppers who’ve purchased a recalled product not to give it to other individuals or pets.
They’ve also pointed out that stores will often offer shoppers a full refund if the product was not used before the recall.
The FDA has explained what Costco customers can do if they’ve purchased the affected Kirkland unsalted or salted butter packages.
Chances are high that people with dairy allergies already know not to buy butter. So, why would consumers who intentionally selected the creamy goodness want to return or trash it?
Now, I completely understand some suffer from allergic reactions to dairy products. Hence, there are FDA guidelines:
Companies have to label food products that have milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame under the law, according to the FDA.
The recalls for potentially not having the notice about milk, an ingredient that some social media users suggested should be common sense to consumers, came roughly a month before the FDA labeled them “Class II,” a classification that the FDA said indicates a product “may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.”
I work in the realm where hazard labeling is important. I have to ask, why wasn’t Costco given the opportunity to simply add a small label saying “Contains Milk” on its packing?
There was an easy fix to this situation. Why was it not explored? Why is a recall of a basic dietary item that was properly made the go-to solution?
I have my own concerns. In the past few months, significant quantities of meat products have been recalled to due listeria. The loss of product and the lack of oversight where it is needed is very troubling.
And I am very mindful of the continued undermining of dairy farmers and cattle ranchers by several federal agencies.
- NYT Pushes “Groundwater Crisis” to Attack America’s Poultry and Dairy Industries
- U.S. Cattle Inventory to Lowest Levels Recorded in 73 years
- EPA Seems to Be Setting Up U.S. to Join the Globalist “War on Meat
- California Climate Change Legislation Targets Flatulent Cows
Hopefully, the new administration will be more serious about food security and less concerned about trite label hiccups.
Reminds me to Clarkson’s Farm when selling soup. The regulations make it difficult to start a small business and only add costs.
With the dumbing down of our society I don’t want to ask random people if they know where butter comes from.
I do understand why some things need to be labeled. Now they’re also selling plant-based butter. It happened to me when looking at the prices I was like: Oh cheap butter, but I then noticed it was plant-based, so no thank you.
Rahx360 ==> If the label said “butter” and it was plant-based, it is probably illegally labeled:
“butter” is set by federal law. 21 USCS 321a;“…”butter” shall be understood to mean the food product usually known as butter, and which is made exclusively from milk or cream, or both, with or without common salt, and with or without additional coloring matter, and containing not less than 80 per centum by weight of milk fat, all tolerances having been allowed for.”
Well, no. Not so long as “plant based” was the same font size as “butter.”
Not that I want ANYONE to be the language police, much less the government – but if they were, things would have to be re-labeled as, for example, “Peanut Spread,” “Apple Spread,” “Almond Juice,” “Oat Juice,” and so on, and on, and on. It would lead to fewer disputes in my household…
(By the way, I don’t call ANYTHING but whole milk “milk.” I’m not an absolute purist, so Pasteurized and homogenized is fine, but not the liquid turned into white water that they label “milk.”)
The regulations make it difficult to start a small business and only add costs.
I’ve been working on “value-added” products for my pepper farm – hot pepper candies and spice blends. The regulations are a major pain to have to comply with. I’ve spent over $20k on a production space that the state accepts.
Along with hamburger and lamb burger patties, lamb chops and pork chops, several pounds of cheese, and three dozen eggs; I’ve got about four pounds of butter in my fridge to make it through the month! That means that Costco just recalled a ~1,600 year supply of butter for me!
Looking over this list, I realize that I need a bigger chest freezer; and more beef! I wonder if I can finish up a good sized brisket before the holiday prime rib!? It seems a worthwhile effort!
One must have goals in life… But – eggs in the freezer? Surely not whole ones? (I’ve never had good luck freezing cheese, either, unless I intend to use it for cheese crumbles.)
Some types of cheese my wife freezes also crumble when thawed.
(Hmmm … I wonder if sticking the block of cheese in the microwave for about 5 or seconds after it thaws would fix the tendency to crumble?)
What’s next? A warning that water is wet?
Famously, on a packet of peanuts, “warning, may contain nuts”.
NJ used to require expiration dates on bottled water.
A labeling requirement for packaged beef stating that it comes from cows.
this falls in the category of the pizza box with the warning:
‘open the box before eating’ or something like that.
we’re doomed
Well, if there’s carbon-free sugar, then perhaps there’s milk-free butter. 😉
That was 15 years ago and nothing has gotten better.
Sad.
I make a mint candy (patty) that uses condensed milk in the filling. That’s a case where it makes sense to label it, since it’s not obvious milk would be an ingredient. Butter, however…
If one puts ingredients labelling, it would have to identify milk.
If that isn’t the case
A survey a few years back found 7% of respondents thought that chocolate milk came from brown cows. Other evidence of similar ignorance and/or stupidity are ubiquitous, not hard to find at all.
Yeah, there’s probably a dismaying number of people who wouldn’t know it without being told.
And this is why there are instructions on the shampoo bottle
“Lather. Rinse. Repeat.”
What’s the user to do when they’ve emptied their last bottle?
did you hear about the computer programmer who died in the shower following those instructions?
What do you expect when you have Joe Dementia as president
but•ter (ˈbʌt ər)
n.
1. a soft whitish or yellowish fatty solid that separates from milk or cream when it is churned, processed for cooking and table use.
Cannot make up shit this stupid.
How soon before the FDA mandates tattooed warnings on the chests of “individuals who may or may not have two X chromosomes and who may or may not identify as lactating parental units, and who may or may not have been forced to conform to societal gender roles at birth by a fascist obstetric team”.
Another victory for the Department of Education. Will Costco next be charged with ensuring that all members know how to read? Only english?
It would take a flexible press operator about 4 hours to make a “contains milk” label, set up the press, run 10,000 labels and get them prepped for shipping.
True. But how many labor hours would be needed to peel and apply those labels and at minimum wage or higher. And then there is the quality control aspect of getting the labels in the correct location with minimum skew/tilt.
If someone is allergic to milk, and does not realize that butter is made from milk…evolution’s work is complete.
This whole issue will quickly resolve.
When the ban on cattle methane emissions goes into effect, no more cows, no more milk, no more cream, no more butter or any other dairy product. Sad for Biden with no more ice cream.
And when they ban oil, they eliminate refrigerated trucks, so getting those dairy products to grocery stores will further add resolution.
So, mates, there is hope! We can be saved from ourselves!
The costs associated with correcting this should ALL fall on the Directors – NOT on the consumer.
One major reason for the labels is the presence of so many imitation dairy products in the dairy section (soy milk, almond milk, etc.). But the base ingredient should be assumed and the labels on the imitators.
I just went and checked the packaging on my butter, it does have a label separate from the ingredients list that says “contains milk” Canada eh!
Our government sucks and needs some serious downsizing.
Costco can sell any milk-based butter that they have left to me for a fraction of what they paid. I am willing to pay them a small fee so that I can dispose of that mess for them.
Checked my bottle of whole milk, for laughs. Sure enough! It says “contains milk” on the ingredients list.
Who knew?
Next up, tattoos on newborns:
“CAUTION!!!! This baby contains Carbon.”
Lawyers sue for such nonsense because they can make quite few bucks collecting settlement money from defendants who would rather settle for say $10K than take a chance on a numskull jury feeling their “power” awarding millions. Loser pays would reduce this expensive foolery substantially.
I have noticed that the user manuals for products that I buy these days contain more warnings about things that I should NOT do, and less information about how to actually use the product.
Cars are the worst. It is a nightmare to find out how to control the operation of the dome light, which controls itself, depending on the ambient light level, in order to save energy. You have to first figure out which “mode” the car us in, and then read the procedure with a very dim flashlight, in you blacked out garage.
Picked up a brick of butter in a store in Canada, as I passed by a display.
It says ‘Made from milk.’
As different from vegetables I guess (‘margarine’).
BTW, I understand there is sensitivity to milk and serious allergy to milk – different things.
Goats milk may not be as strong a trigger as cow milk, but is not free from risk.
There are processed versions of milk readily available in stores where I live, one is ‘microfiltered’ or such, ‘A2’ milk is from cows bread to not have one type of protein usually common in milk.