Food

Butter's Yellow Color Comes From Carotene in Grass-Fed Cow Milk

The golden hue of butter comes from beta-carotene in the grass that cows eat. When cows are grass-fed, the carotene passes into their milk and concentrates in the butterfat. Corn-fed cows produce pale, almost white butter that often needs artificial coloring to look appetizing.

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That rich golden color in your butter is actually a sign of a grass-fed diet. Butter gets its traditional yellow color from plant carotene in the milk of grass-fed cows. The beta-carotene from grass passes into the milk and concentrates in the butterfat during churning. But when cows are fed corn or grain instead of grass, their milk produces butter that is pale and anemically white. This is why much of the butter on supermarket shelves has been dyed to achieve that appetizing golden hue. Interestingly, this practice of dyeing butter is perfectly legal and common, even though margarine manufacturers faced massive opposition when they tried to add yellow coloring to their product. The dairy industry has long maintained that dyeing pale butter is simply a cosmetic tweak, while yellow margarine was decried as fraudulent deception.