Effect of Chemical Additives on the Spreading Quality of Butter. II. Laboratory and Plant Churnings

Abstract

Summary To determine the effect of additives on the spreadability and hardness of butter, 37 materials were added singly or in combination to the cream or to the butter in concentrations of 0.5 to 6%. The materials investigated in 280 laboratory churnings and 42 commercial conventional and continuous churnings included glyceride preparations, Tweens and Spans, stabilizers, vegetable oils, crystal inhibitors, salts, enzymes, detergents, skimmilk solids, and buttermilk solids. The results revealed that several materials, particularly certain glyceride preparations and Tweens and Spans, lecithin, buttermilk solids, and skimmilk solids were effective in improving the spreadability and decreasing the hardness of the butter. When these materials were added to conventionally churned butter, the spreadability of the butter was improved by 10 to 44% and the hardness decreased from 3 to 21%. In some cases, combinations of additives yielded more effective results than the individual additives added to the same butter. Storage of butter tended to overcome the beneficial effects of the additives indicating that the additive materials may delay but not prevent the normal setting phenomena in butter. Problems encountered with the additives were difficulty of incorporation into butter and off-flavors at concentrations greater than 1%. However, the additives did not appear to affect the keeping quality nor alter the chemical nature of the butter.