Attention all butter consumers!

Are you a butter consumer?

If so, please read this email carefully to the end to avoid possible infection with Listeriosis, and also to learn how to distinguish good quality butter from poor quality butter. 

Recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the withdrawal from the market of 3.5-ounce tubs of Wegmans Lemon Dill Finishing Butter, an Epicurean Butter's product. The company has resorted to an emergency butter recall after its herbal supplier announced that some lots of their frozen dill may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. If you have recently bought this product, please make sure it is not included in one of the lots mentioned here: Epicurean Butter Recalls “Wegmans Lemon Dill Finishing Butter” Because of Possible Health Risk | FDA

If you have already eaten this product, watch out for symptoms of listeriosis and don't hesitate to seek help as this infection can be devastating for pregnant women and immunocompromised people.

Symptoms of listeriosis may appear several days after eating contaminated food. If you develop this infection, you may experience the following 4 main symptoms:

1. high temperature;
2. muscle pain;
3. nausea;
4. diarrhea.

If Listeria spreads to the nervous system, a person may experience additional symptoms, including:
headache;

– neck muscle stiffness;
– confusion;
– loss of balance;
– seizures.

While it is a relatively rare disease, this infection poses a significant public health problem due to its high mortality. 

Let's move on to more positive information for all butter lovers. 

Did you know that in addition to being tasty, butter consumption can also bring benefits?

It contains vitamins A, D and E, which are very important for our body. Thus, the consumption of butter has a beneficial effect on vision, skin condition and concentration.

Every day a person should eat 20 grams of butter. The main thing is that it should be of good quality.

But how to determine the quality of butter? 

In the store you will not be allowed to taste, open and examine the color of the product. How to determine the quality of butter in this case?

First of all, read the packaging. There are some markers that will help you understand the quality of the product. For example, composition: the product must contain milk and cream. Nothing more! Look at the product's expiration date. The longer it is, the more preservatives in the oil and the less useful it is. And vice versa: the shorter the shelf life of the product, the less chemicals it contains. Natural butter spoils rather quickly.

Indicators such as color, taste, smell will help you better determine the quality of butter, but you can only do this analysis at home, since you have unpacked the product.

Here are some tips that you should consider before using butter in your diet:

• Quality butter has a light creamy tint. Too yellow color indicates that an artificial dye has been added to its composition.
• If you notice dark spots on the surface of the butter, then you have a moldy product in front of you.
• Real butter has almost no taste of its own. If you feel a slightly sour aroma, this should alert you.
• By observing how the process of melting butter in a heated pan takes place, it is possible to determine its quality with a high degree of accuracy. 
• High-quality butter in a pan should melt evenly, without the formation of water and whitish foam. The abundance of foam will directly indicate an excess of whey in it and an insufficient amount of milk fat.
• Having brought the butter from the store, cut off a small piece from it, put it on a plate and leave it for an hour at room temperature.
• Although natural butter will become soft, it will retain its shape and will not spread over the surface of the plate.
• It is better to buy butter in foil rather than parchment paper, as it allows light to pass through, which means that the product deteriorates faster.

Thus, we figured out, if not at a high scientific and experimental level, then at least at an expert level, in matters of difference. Now the choice is ours. I wish you to choose quality, usefulness and pleasure.