We invited an expert panel to CHOICE HQ today to help out with a real bread and butter issue - namely, how good does it taste. Stay tuned for the results, some pictures of the test environment below.
Which butter or spread do you prefer?
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That’s a whole lot of butter to taste! I’m sure the deliciousness factor would be wearing a bit thin by the end of the test!
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It was impressive to watch them, they were a very focused group. I coudln’t imagine it myself 
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One would need to love butter.
Unsalted Australian butter. …brand doesn’t matter as long as it meets this criteria. Use unit pricing in assisting with purchase decisions.
We only use butter in cooking…our sandwiches are naked and therefore butter/spread free. The only exception is the other half sometimes adds butter to toasted fruit loaf when it is made for breakfast.
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AH! They needed my wife, known for having a little bread to accompany the slice of butter. Or is it just to prevent getting oily fingers. Something like that… Usually it’s unsalted. Local specialty or french for special purposes. Otherwise a standard supermarket block. She tries them all.
The first thing she will ask when I tell her about this test is, how does she get that tasting job?
Look forward to the results.
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… ‘no cows were harmed’ … 
looks divine …
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Mr Z is a butter man through and through. Recent heart attack still hasn’t got him off it, although his use is moderate. I think he likes the idea of it being natural (more natural than vegetable based margarines), in tune with his childhood on a dairy farm, and being very anti authority imagines that anything that is deemed bad for you by an authority ‘must be good for you - why else would they ban it?’ Consequently he has decided that margarine and soft butter alternatives must be terrible. While he takes no notice of CSIRO, nutritional guidelines etc, he totally believes the guy who told him margarine kills turkeys, that’s why they now feed it to humans - must be true - some bloke forwarded an email that’s been to thousands of people.
I have been using Flora Pro-Activ Light in cooking. I am not using it for the Cholesterol lowering as I don’t eat enough every day to satisfy the claim of lowering by up to 10%; but like the lower fat idea (and it was on special). Indeed, we are halfway through a 500g tub and it is already a month past its Use-By. Mr Z puts butter on my toast, I put a teaspoon of marg in his mashed spud. We are not big bread eaters and he will often have no spread on his dry biscuits, Ryvita or bread.
Look forward to seeing where Black & Gold salted butter comes in the taste test.
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I’m normally a butter person, but if I pick a spread I actually really like Nuttelex, which is made out of olive oil.
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Nuttelex Olive is actually 21% olive oil, 65% other veg oils. These could include the very high in saturated fats: Palm oil, as their only Palm oil free spread is the Coconut one ( At 92% saturated fat content, the Coconut oil would not be a wise choice).
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I don’t use many spreads but when I do I prefer Olive Grove Classic Mild Margarine .
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We generally go for organic butter, from Australia if possible, NZ is ok, but we don’t buy the brands imported from Europe - too many food miles (and even more food kilometres! 
)
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Well looks like I’m best avoiding Nuttelex then.
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New Zealand butter - much more likely to be grass-fed than ours.
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I am not sure if this is the case. Most dairies in Australia run stock on pastures as they need the additional nutrition from green grass to boost protein levels and milk volumes.
In colder climates (e.g. norther Europe) they do house dairy cows as as such the stock has less opportunity to eat green grass in the winter seasons.
These two websites also provide some information for Australia and NZ…
https://www.fonterra.com/content/dam/fonterra-public-website/pdf/NZ-Grass-Fed-Attestation.pdf
Note: in NZ, grass fed also includes grass, grass silage and forage crops. The NZ link indicates that ‘on average 85 % of the diet of dairy cows that make up the Fonterra New Zealand milk pool consists of grass, grass silage, hay and forage crops’. They don’t provide the percentage for grazing, but it could be considerably less that 85% as hay and grass silage are not pasture based.
In Australia ‘approximately 60–65% of cattle feed requirements comes from grazing in a year of ‘normal’ seasonal conditions’'.
It is possible that both countries have similar pasture feeding regimes for the dairy cows, when feed other than from pasture grazing is removed from the NZ figures.
I suspect that the NZ figure could potentially be lover as their climate is colder and more additional grass products (hay and silage) may be needed through the winter months to maintain production levels.
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I’ve also been using Flora Pro-Active, but as a spread. Not enough to lower cholesterol (25g a day) as I use it seldom and sparingly, on toast or when making sandwiches, but also not enough to do any harm as there’s been talk of potential hormonal effects and reduced absorption of fat-soluble Vitamins, caused by plant sterols in humans (There’s a warning on the tub re children and pregnant women including it in their diet without first consulting a doctor).
It’s just that I don’t like the quantity of saturated fats in butter and margarine,
although nothing beats the taste of real butter😋
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Do not bet on this! Cows have a rather rough time of it all… and you really do not want to know what happens to the poor little boy calves that are born to dairy cows (to keep the milk flowing.) These days there are of course quite strict rules regarding such calves but there are still some of the self professed Alpha males who disregard rules because they know better than the rest of us. Now, they are males aren’t they…? Hmmm!
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They only have one name - Spam.
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only spam, not veal?
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At our local sale-yard’s last auction they were going for $6 - $8; beef calves (same age) were going for $58-$250 and increasing in value by $250/month.
Why so cheap? They are a diary breed, not bred for meat production. The people who buy are only taking one or two, probably as lawn mowers, children’s pets or to fatten and slaughter later. In some respects they get a better life than the beef herd.
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