Top 8: Spread the word about these butter alternatives with many benefits

Spreadables are less wasteful than hunks of hard butter dragged across bread, often tearing the crumb in the process

Spreadables are efficient and are easy for children to use without making a mess. Picture: iStock.

Easy to spread straight from the fridge, spreadable butter and its alternatives offer many benefits. 

They are less wasteful than hunks of hard butter dragged across bread, often tearing the crumb in the process. 

We can grate butter or run a warm knife to soften it, but in a rush, this solution often doesn’t occur to us.

Yes, spreadables are efficient and are easy for children to use without making a mess. 

But how do they taste, with or without dairy? Do they have other flavours that don’t taste like butter? And do they have less fat content, and at what cost to flavour?

Taking a look at what is widely available in supermarkets, we found that fat levels are still quite high, so we provided the total fat content for comparison.

In most cases, whipped with water, spreadables are lighter. While we have included some cholesterol-lowering samples, we are not comparing them on their efficacy, but on flavour.

Spreadables add a silkiness to hot vegetables, even when they don’t have much taste, so season accordingly. 

They are not a substitute for butter or pure oils in cake and pastry making, as the added water changes the balance and texture.

Kerrygold Irish Creamery Butter 400g €5.49

From a good range, this one with just two ingredients – cream and 1.8% salt – is just like regular butter. 

The creamy texture has been achieved through a process that increases the softer milkfat. 

Delicious. Full fat, so not for cholesterol watchers, but a delicious, unadulterated product usable straight from the fridge. Good butter is expensive these days. Fats are 80%.

Score: 10

Flora Natural Ingredients Original 450g €3.50

This plant-based spread, made from rapeseed and sunflower oils, and happily no palm oil, is whipped with water, coconut fat, faba bean (broad bean) preparation, and lecithin (a plant-based emulsifier) to bring it all together. 

The result is creamy and not too oily. The 1.3% salt is just the right amount to be interesting, with natural flavourings, and vitamin A. Fats are 70%.

Score: 8.5

Connacht Gold half-fat butter 454g €4.39

Butter (49%) is whipped with water and milk protein, resulting in 40% fat – half of some samples. 

Salt at 1.1% provides a good flavour. Additives are lactic acid, potassium sorbate, and beta carotene for colour. A tasty one for weight watching without a sense of deprivation.

Score: 9

Suma Sunflower spread 550g €4.63

The 0.8% salt lifts this oily blend, which is made from 40% sunflower oil and water. 

There is also palm oil, though we read on the website that it’s from sustainable sources. 

There are also added emulsifiers, vitamins, natural flavouring and colour. Fats are 59%. We bought in Quay Co-Op in Cork.

Score: 8

Dairygold Original 454g €3.99

A smooth mixture made from cream, palm oil (no mention of provenance), and rapeseed oil. Salt is 1.34%, and fats are 63%. Tasters liked it quite well, but commented that it lacked richness. Made by Kerry Group.

Score: 8.5

Dunnes Cholesterol Lowering spread 500g €3.19

Tasters marginally preferred it to Benecol Buttery Taste (500g €7.99). Contains water, rapeseed oil, palm oil and plant sterol esters, lowering total and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels. Salt content is 0.64%. Natural milk flavouring, 34% fat, and added vitamins and colour.

Score: 7.5

Tesco Butter Me Up 1kg €1.99

Vegetable fats 59% are from rapeseed and palm oil, with no mention of responsible sourcing. There is also 12% reconstituted Irish buttermilk, which adds some depth of flavour. 

Salt is a tasty 1.3% and there is an emulsifier, as expected with the high water content. Fats are 59.5%. A pleasant tasting spread. We noted that the low price reflects that this really is partly for the water – high in volume as second on the list of ingredients. Made in Ireland.

Score: 8

Lidl Casaburo Olive Spread 500g €1.15

Olive oil makes up just 10% of the ingredients and is listed after rapeseed and palm oils (no mention of sustainable sources) and water. 

There is also reconstituted buttermilk and emulsifiers, which make a creamy texture. There is no detectable olive oil taste, so what we got was a light, 0.94% saltiness. Fats are 59%.

Score: 7