The flood of cheap butter in Czech stores shortly before Christmas has sparked disputes about what is behind the unusually low price of the desired raw material. And also about how butter should be labeled correctly.
While the Food Chamber claims that the unusually cheap butter comes from frozen stocks from Belgium, Germany and Poland, and the Czech-Moravian Dairy Association also confirms it, the Trade and Tourism Association insists that the main cause is a long-term surplus of milk and its rapidly falling prices.
“Milk prices are not falling, certainly not in the Czech Republic,” says agrarian analyst Petr Havel.
At the same time, a classic block of butter can now be bought in stores for less than thirty crowns shortly before Christmas.
There is almost no fresh butter in stores
According to the head of the dairy union, Jiří Kopáček, this is a trick to attract customers to the store. It is said that such butter cannot be produced for such a price.
And it explains why you can rarely come across butter marked as “fresh” in stores.
“Butter labeled as fresh is butter that has never been frozen, but only refrigerated, and has a shelf life of only twenty days. But that is not enough for stores,” explains Kopáček, as the Czech decree defines this term.
“However, if only butter is written on the package, it is exactly the same, but the dairy itself guarantees a shelf life of at least three months, and the longest is around five months,” he explains.
“Today’s technologies are so aseptic (sterile, note ed.), that the butter will last,” reminds Kopáček. The same applies to butter labeled as “farm” or “from fresh cream”.
All butter is made from fresh cream
“Butter is always made from fresh cream. In order for the product to meet the conditions for butter, it must have at least 81 percent fat and a maximum of 16 percent water,” explains Kopáček.
According to Kopáček, butter that goes through the freezer is a special category. While Czech butter that has gone through a freezer must be labeled as table butter, foreign butter, even if it has been frozen, does not have to be labeled as such. And not even if it is brought to the Czech Republic.
“The European legislation knows only one technological term – and that is butter. That is, a product with a consumption within two years. In that case, you have no way of knowing whether the product has been in freezers,” Kopáček specifies, adding that the European legislation is unfair to customers in this regard.
“The consumer should not be deceived, he should know what he is buying,” he believes.
Freezing does no harm
At the same time, thawed butter is not harmful, experts confirm. “Freezing is a safe method of preservation for butter. However, with proper storage during freezing and after thawing, changes in quality should not be noticeable,” says chemist and teacher Ladislav Čurda at the Institute of Milk and Fat Technology of VŠCHT.
When frozen, according to Čurda, the temperature should be minus 18 degrees or lower and the storage period should not exceed 24 months.
“From the point of view of taste, it lacks freshness and can be slightly sour due to ongoing oxidative changes, even at freezer temperatures,” points out Jiří Kopáček, head of the Czech-Moravian Dairy Association.
Such butter is harder to spread, lumpy and more suitable for baking.
Kopáček also described that while Czech dairies do not have their own freezers and the only butter that is frozen in the Czech Republic is that which goes to the state material reserves. When such butter is then released due to transformation, it goes into industrial production. It does not reach store shelves.
