Fats and oils: how to properly choose butter in the store and spot counterfeits?

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Butter is a popular dairy product, but store shelves are often filled with counterfeits and spreads disguised as real butter. Understanding the composition and external characteristics of the product will help make the right choice.

Real butter should contain only one ingredient in its composition — pasteurized cream from cow's milk, sometimes with the addition of salt. If the packaging lists vegetable oils, palm oil, milk fat equivalents, or general formulations like plant-cream product, you do not have butter in front of you.

A quality product has a homogeneous consistency, a light yellow or creamy color, and a barely noticeable creamy aroma. Real butter is hard in the refrigerator and melts evenly at room temperature without leaving watery traces or a chemical aftertaste.

To finally verify the quality of the purchased product, you can perform simple tests at home.

1. Drop a piece of butter into a glass of hot water: real butter should dissolve completely and evenly, forming an oily film, while margarine often breaks down into flakes.
2. Leave the butter on a plate at room temperature: a quality product softens gradually and does not separate into layers of water and fat.
3. Examine the price: producing natural butter requires a large amount of milk, so too low a cost should arouse suspicion.

Fats and oils: how to properly choose butter in the store and spot counterfeits?

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