Why is unsalted butter more expensive than salted butter?

Question

I mean, there's one less ingredient and one less process. You'd have thought it would be cheaper. And just how much salt is there in butter? I want to know how much of my daily salt I would be cutting down on if I changed to unsalted butter.

Answer 1

First of all, SALT IS NOT REMOVED FROM BUTTER. It is either added or not added.

Unsalted and Salted are not always priced that differently. It depends on the market conditions, locale, etc. Many "gourmet" recipes and chefs use unsalted butter in their recipes and perhaps retailers feel they can charge more for the item because of its "novelty" factor. Many people just buy it because they can more conveniently control their sodium consumption.

The composition of butter is: fat (80 - 82%), water (15.6 - 17.6%), salt (about 1.2%) as well as protein, calcium and phosphorous (about 1.2%). Butter also contains fat-soluble vitamins A, D and E.

As for the salt in milligrams, 1 pat of butter (0.2 oz) has 29 mg or 1 (8 oz) stick of butter has 1,302 mg (www.calorieking.com)

Please visit this site if you would like to learn how butter is made: http://www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairyedu/butter.html

It's good stuff - don't give it up!

Answer 2

This is the scale of economics - the more I can sell the cheaper I can afford to sell it. It is cheaper to make a ton of butter with salt than a pound of butter without.

You must consider that big corporations have machines that run lots of butter per day. They need to stop the run that most people will buy with salt to put in a new run without salt that few people buy. The actual cost of the salt in each stick is minimal.

The amount of salt varies by manufacturer. Unless you are eating sticks of butter the difference in your salt intake would be minimal. Just don't add salt over and above what is in the ingredients of your food and if you are a normal healthy person that should be enough to maintain proper salt intake.

Answer 3

some baking recipes require unsalted butter but then again the same recipe usually ask to add a little salt lol. i was told that the unsalted butter is actually higher quality than salted butter for the same brand of butter. this was told to me when i was visiting a dairy farm in australia (school project). as for unsalted butter spreading on toast etc...i do find it a little on the blend side.

Answer 4

When you say "Less Demand", I'm assuming that's in comparison to regular butter? It would depend on the supply of non-salted butter to compare both. There could be both a lesser demand/supply and still achieve same price.

To me it's paying for convenience/health. People will have to pay that extra .50 ~ 1.00 to achieve the goal of obtaining no salt in their butter. Also the company has to take that extra step of removing the salt (or sodium) that is found in butter.

Answer 5

Could be that the process to take all the salt out is more expensive to do.

Answer 6

Unsalted should have a shorter shelf life, therefore needs to be replaced more often

Answer 7

that's funny, in my store, they are normally closer in price. i use unsalted so i can bake with it and control how much salt i want to add to the dish

Answer 8

less demand for unsalted butter

Answer 9

the salt removal process requires spending, so, the producers have to add on value to the price.

in short, because of value added process.

Answer 10

purely down to supply and demand, they make it in smaller batches but the churning time is the same, therefore per kilo they don't make as much money when compared to manufacture time taken, so they have to charge more for it