Many outlaw butters. The General Directorate for Fraud Repression (DGCCRF) has criticized the practices of certain professionals, claiming in a press release to have detected an “anomaly rate” of 29.5% during a vast investigation. This was carried out in 2019 among 129 establishments in the sector – artisanal and industrial manufacturers, livestock farms, retail businesses, mass distribution, bakeries – and its conclusions were published on December 29.
Of the 89 samples taken during controls and analyzed in the laboratory, 15% had a water content higher than the maximum of 16% imposed by European standards. A classic trick of the food industry which allows the manufacturer to reduce its raw material costs, but which “alters the quality of the products”, recalls the DGCCRF.
The controllers also “often” noted the use of whey fat (whey) instead of cream – or a mixture of the two – in the manufacture of butter when only cream was indicated in the list of ingredients. Four samples of semi-salted butter did not have enough salt to be qualified as such (their salt content must be between 0.8g and 3g per 100g).
The DGCCRF says it has also uncovered practices of reuse by manufacturers of poorly packaged or returned butter “by melting them and reincorporating them into the manufacture of higher quality butters such as extra-fine butters for which recycling is prohibited “.
“This survey revealed that non-compliance is found among agricultural producers as well as industrialists,” underlines the DGCCRF. At the end of these controls, for which it favored education when there was no intention of fraud, the administration issued 30 warnings, seven injunctions and a criminal offense report for destruction of seals.