Re: Gilda Butter Crackers

Question

Here is the reply from the OU regarding the Gilda Butter Crackers and the ingredient listed as "Natural Butter Flavour" Thank you for contacting us at [email hidden]; we appreciate your interest. The Rabbinic Coordinator checked with the company regarding the ingredients of this products. The company contact confirmed that the butter flavor did NOT contain actual (dairy) butter, but an imitation flavor. (End of OU reply) This morning I spoke to a company rep and she told me that the flavour was "butter", just plain old natural dairy butter. After receiving the response from the OU I again called the company and was told by a different rep that the flavour was imitation butter flavour from Prime Flavours in NJ. I called and spoke with a rep from Prime flavours and they promised to fax me a MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet - which is available for every substance known to humankind) on the flavour so that we can find out what it really is. The Prime Flavour company insists that the flavour contains nothing but "vegetable oil". I am very interested in how it is that they can make "vegetable oil" taste like "butter" as all of us dieters and kosher consumers have been trying this for years. I also notified the FDA's Consumer Contact Board because as far as I know it is against FDA Rules to call a product "Butter anything" if it doesn't contain "Butter". Also I always thought that it is also against their rules to call something "natural butter flavour" if it doesn't contain or derive from "butter". So, either way there seems to be a labeling problem, either the product is OU-D and not labeled as such or the company should be labeling the product "Imitation Butter Flavoured Crackers" and the ingredient should read "imitation butter flavour" (from natural vegetable sources). This reminds me of a time when I was about 8 years old and my cousin got me to eat a dandelion because it was a "buttercup" and tasted like butter. UmUm Good!!!!