Costco Has Stopped Selling a Popular Butter at Several Locations
Irish butter is highly prized for its rich flavor and super creamy texture. These desirable qualities are generally attributed to the grass-fed cows from which it comes.
Nutritionists say eating grass-fed butter may be healthier than regular American butter, helping to boost immunity, improve blood sugar, and increase heart and bone health.
The most popular brand of Irish butter in the U.S. right now is Kerrygold, which you probably recognize from its eye-catching, shiny silver and gold packaging that really helps the product to stand out on store shelves. The brand became especially sought-after amid the butter coffee craze that lifestyle guru Dave Asprey started back in 2009.
If you notice that Kerrygold Irish butter is suddenly missing from your local supermarket, well, you can blame that same hard-to-miss packaging.
SFGate reports that Costco stores in California and New York recently yanked Kerrygold butter from shelves because its usual foil wrapper may violate new state rules prohibiting PFASs, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, in food packaging.
Both states recently enacted laws banning these so-called "forever chemicals," which may pose health risks to humans, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Several other states are adopting similar rules this year, per Bloomberg Law.
A Kerrygold rep told SFGate that the company "made the responsible decision to reformulate some of our packaging" in light of the new regulations, adding that the butter would soon return to stores, complete with PFAS-free packaging.
Irish Central reported last month that Kerrygold had temporarily halted shipments to the U.S. "to ensure that no impacted product would be on shelves by the time the new state regulations in New York and California came into effect."
A Costco manager in San Francisco told SFGate the popular butter probably wouldn't return for another month or two.
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