The social media food influences pushing Irish butter
Many social media food influencers have made a point of recommending that only high-quality butter be used, with some naming Kerrygold, or recommending that Irish butter be used.
Dairy farmers reflecting on a profitable year should include Justine Doiron in their Christmas and new year wishes.
She is the Brooklyn, New York-based viral social media food stylist who introduced the butter board concept to her 1.8m TikTok followers in 2022.
After she posted that short video, the hashtag #ButterBoard quickly racked up 180m views, as hundreds of thousands of people attempted to make their own butter boards.
It came to the attention of consumer trends analysts at Rabobank, a global lender to the food industry. It said recently # butter board has 415m views, and noted that some of the 71,100 7 Eleven convenience stores worldwide now offer serve-yourself Nacho butter boards.
A butter board is a wooden board (or ceramic dish) spread with butter and sprinkled with toppings such as flaky sea salt, freshly ground pepper, spices, herbs, citrus zest, edible flowers, and honey.
You can scoop some of it up with a knife and spread it on your bread, or pull your fresh baguette slice through the artful presentation.
But not before taking a picture of it, because this is part of the millennial food trend of posting a picture of your personal food creation on social media, just as much as it is a trendy new appetiser.
Social media like TikTok has been full of picture-perfect colourful creations of softened butter, studded with herbs, grated lemon peel, bacon bits, figs, chilli, nuts, radishes, jam, smoked salmon, cured meats, edible flowers such as nasturtiums, all drizzled with honey (you can add whatever looks or tastes good).
It's an appetiser or party food that requires no cooking, looks expensive and is photogenic, and it can be served with just a sliced baguette. In other words, the dream food for a food marketeer.
It became a worldwide social media sensation in 2022.
When it originated in the USA, their butter prices were near all-time highs, but trendy young consumers still followed the new butter-consuming craze.
Even with retail butter averaging about $4.70 per pound in the USA, butter boards became a party food sensation Big American dairy processors Land O'Lakes said autumn 2022 butter sales forecasts were much exceeded, thanks to butter board demand.
But farmers on this side of the Atlantic have benefited also, because many social media food influencers have made a point of recommending that only high-quality butter be used, with some naming Kerrygold, or recommending that Irish butter be used. Full marks are deserved by Ornua for keeping their brand in the premium category, ready to take advantage of food crazes like the butter board, a welcome arrival to boost the efforts of the Ornua marketing staff who have made Kerrygold one of the most popular butters in the United States.
Kerrygold became Ireland's first billion-euro food brand in 2018, and €2bn is the next sales target.
In the UK, Kerrygold is one of only two top priced butter brands to grow volumes, selling 3.8% more than last year, according to magazine's compilation of the top products of 2022. According to an Ornua Foods statement, Kerrygold is winning in the UK due to its "rich, creamy taste and premium positioning".
"With enough butter, anything is good," Julia Child famously said. She was (she died in 2004, aged 92) the much-loved star chef of numerous US TV shows, and a huge fan of butter. While filming the Baking with Julia TV show, she used 753 lbs of butter.
Now, the viral success of butter boards shows that this versatile dairy commodity is as popular as ever.
TikTok has since discovered yet another butter-related trend.
For example,@soozythefoodie can be seen carefully placing butter around an edible raw brand hemp wick. The candle is then lit and used to "butter" your fresh bread.
Needless to say, the dairy farmers of the world are big fans.
