Effect of chemical additives on the spreading quality of butter. I. The consistency of butter as determined by mechanical and consumer panel evaluation methods.

Summary An instrument, the Consistometer, was perfected for measuring spreadability (by a knife) and hardness (by a wire) of butter. The instrument differentiated between butters with 120 to 500g. of hardness and 260 to 1,542g. of spreadability. Such butters ranged between easy to difficult to spread on the basis of a consumer panel evaluation. Evaluation of 109 commercial butter samples obtained from 14 different states located in different parts of the country revealed a high degree of correlation between the instrument and the consumer panel. The results indicated that the most desirable butter consistency from the consumer's standpoint represents a range on the Consistometer of 400 to 900g. resistance to the knife, or 140 to 200g. resistance to the wire, under the conditions of this study. Butters from the same sections and from different sections of the country at the same season varied widely in spreadability and hardness, displaying spreadabilities of 260– 1,542g. and hardness of 120–500g. About 75% of the samples exhibited a spreadability range of 801 to 1,400g. The need for improvement in the consistency of butter is apparent. Statistical analysis of manufacturing data supplied by the companies showed significant correlations between butter spreadability and/or hardness to (a) method of pasteurization, (b) churning temperature, and (c) butter storage temperature.