KERRYGOLD IS ONE of Ireland’s most popular exports and has become one of the most popular ‘fancy butters’ in the United States over the past few years. (Yes, Kerrygold is considered ‘fancy’ in America.)
The butter is currently available in 49 states. The only state you can’t get your mitts on it? Wisconsin.
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Local news outlet TJM4 reported last week that Kerrygold is banned from being sold in the state thanks to an old law from the 1970s that “requires all butter sold in Wisconsin to be tested by a panel of experts and issued a letter grade for quality.”
As Kerrygold is made and manufactured in Ireland, however, it is not graded in America meaning that it doesn’t meet Wisconsin’s stringent requirements.
And that’s led to people smuggling the butter across state lines.
Per TJM4:
Jean Smith loves the butter so much, she has a couple-month stash squirreled away in her Waukesha fridge. It’s a stockpile of butter she regularly buys in Nebraska and drives back across state lines.
Dedication.
The story has since taken off in the United States and inspired quality headlines like this.
Now, apparently Wisconsin is the only state in the Union that has these absurd cheese control regulations. Thank goodness for that, because if Virginia decided to bow down to some greedy lobby representing people whose way of dealing with quality competition is to use government force to cheat themselves a bigger market share, I’d become a cheese outlaw. No one takes my Kerrygold!
Conservative news outlets like The Blaze have taken on the Kerrygold story and pointed to it as an example of bureaucracy gone mad.
“You only hate me ’cause I’m popular and you’re not.”
A spokesperson for Kerrygold said in a statement that they are working with authorities to make the butter available in the state.
Under Wisconsin legislation, retail butter for sale in Wisconsin must bear either a Wisconsin or federal grade mark. This effectively excludes Kerrygold butter being sold in Wisconsin because Kerrygold butter is graded, produced and packaged in Ireland. We are currently working with the Wisconsin authorities on a solution which will enable consumers throughout the state enjoy the great taste of Kerrygold butter.
We’ll never take Kerrygold for granted again.
