this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2024
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[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 51 points 1 day ago (2 children)

While I get that this is a legal thing…

It also really shows how divorced from where our food comes from people are. Also, how many products that could be called “butter” that are completely artificial and have no dairy content at all.

[–] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

I thought “butter” was the ingredient!

[–] RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

In the eu terms like butter and dairy can only be used for milk products.

But our legaslative pendulum did swing a bit too far in the other direction (imo): terms like soja-butter and so on were also banned.

[–] drake@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 1 day ago (7 children)

The original intent of that bill was to ban plant-based alternatives from using commonly understood terms and phrases.

It’s not like the EU banning phrases like “soy milk” on packaging was an unintended consequence of some kind of “common sense” law being applied where it shouldn’t be.

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[–] Kanda@reddthat.com 4 points 1 day ago

Akshually it's soy margarine

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 158 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (8 children)

Costco forced to recall food that was not labeled to the requirements. In this case, the butter is supposed to be labelled as containing milk. Now, you and me, we know that butter is made from milk or cream, but only a great fool would assume everyone knows what they know.

And, these labels aren't just for the lactose intolerant consumer. The allergen information is fed to computers that handle the automated distribution of products to various uses. That butter might end up as one of a hundred ingredients in a prepackaged donut. If the allergen isn't on the label, the person doing data entry may not realize it. Disney World killed a doctor just last year because of allergen exposure, and that shit happens all the time. It only made the news because Disney tried to enforce an arbitration clause the husband digitally accepted when he tried out Disney+.

The point is, this is not a story about overregulation or snowflakes being too sensitive. Costco fucked up, and their fuckup puts lives at risk. If you happened to buy the improperly labelled butter, congrats on your good fortune, because Costco is going to pay you for their fuckup. You don't have to discard perfectly good butter unless you cannot have dairy, and you didn't yet know that butter contains milk.

[–] chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world 52 points 2 days ago (8 children)

Yeah, I work in a restaurant and allergies are a real issue that we deal with nearly every day. There is no such thing as being "too cautious" when you are dealing with the literal life and death of another human.

[–] BedbugCutlefish@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I have a lot of deadly food allergies, and I just, don't eat out anymore. Too many trips to the ER. Sucks, cause it makes travel difficult, to plan on cooking my own meals, and basically means I can't safely travel abroad anywhere I'm not 100% fluent in

[–] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 12 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Exactly. If I had deadly food allergies instead of uncomfortable ones, I wouldn't trust a stranger to remember.

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[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago

My grandma, in her 86 years of life, still needs to check to see if butter has milk in it. She is the use case you mention that we take for granted! (Although at least the only real fallout of her blunder is indigestion and what she does to my bathroom when she visits and has lactose :x)

[–] rotten@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Put a sticker on it, make an announcement, done.

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Right. That's what a recall is. Kirkland can't put stickers on something they have already sold.

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[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Now, you and me, we know that butter is made from milk or cream, but only a great fool would assume everyone knows what they know.

In this day and age of vegan "dairy" products, including butter and cheese (not to mention margarines), I don't think you can even reasonably assume butter has to have milk in it. Because there is a greater than 0% chance it doesn't.

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[–] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago

Couldn’t this be solved by printing some stickers?

[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml 35 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Couldn't have solved this issue with a big batch of stickers?

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 22 points 2 days ago (4 children)

That's probably what will happen -- stickers and restock.

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[–] lazylion_ca@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

For stuff still on the shelf, probably. For stuff already sold, no so much.

[–] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

For the stuff that's already sold, they don't have to destroy it, or do anything really, unless the customer returns it. Hardly any are going to. If the article counts those in the headline number, it's being a little dishonest.

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[–] SiEstUbiEst@lemmy.world 21 points 2 days ago

Cool, a headline framing regulation as wasteful, not a fascist wedge at all

[–] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 day ago

I can't believe it's butter!

[–] anarchrist@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 days ago

Sounds like a lot but it's actually just 8 swimming pool sized tubs they mislabeled

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