Butter becomes a luxury for some Europeans as price shoots up

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Unlocking Word Meanings

Read the following words/expressions found in today’s article.

  1. fragrant / ˈfreɪ grənt / (adj.) – having a pleasant or good smell
    Example:

    The fragrant fresh bread attracted many people as they passed by the bakery.


  2. patisserie / pəˈtɪs ə ri / (n.) – a shop that sells cakes, cookies, pies, etc., especially French pastries
    Example:

    She worked at a famous patisserie as an assistant pastry chef before opening a shop herself.


  3. distortion / dɪˈstɔr ʃən / (n.) – a change to the original shape, sound, or appearance of something, often making it less clear or accurate
    Example:

    Using artificial flavors in the traditional recipe is viewed as a distortion of its intended taste.


  4. let up / lɛt ʌp / (phrasal v.) – to stop an action that one has been doing continuously
    Example:

    The popularity of AI services shows no letting up, with more tech companies releasing their own AI services.


  5. vilify / ˈvɪl əˌfaɪ / (v.) – to write or speak extremely negative and cruel things about someone or something to make other people think poorly of them
    Example:

    Although fast food has been vilified for being unhealthy, many consumers still buy these foods.


Article

Read the text below.

Pastry chef Arnaud Delmontel rolls out dough for croissants and pain au chocolat that later emerge golden and fragrant from the oven in his Paris patisserie.


In recent months, he has had to pay increasingly more for the butter so essential to their flavor—a price he says has shot up 25% since September alone. But he is refusing to follow some of his competitors who have started making their croissants with margarine.


“It’s a distortion of what a croissant is,” Delmontel said. “A croissant is made with butter.”


The butter inflation largely results from a global shortage of milk caused by declining milk production, including in the U.S. and New Zealand, the world’s largest butter exporter, according to economist Mariusz Dziwulski, a food and agricultural market analyst at PKO Bank Polski.


Across the 27-member European Union, the price of butter rose 19% on average from October 2023 to October 2024, including 49% in Slovakia and 40% in Germany and the Czech Republic—numbers, however, which don’t reflect further hikes.


Since butter is sold in standard sizes, food producers can’t hide the price hikes by reducing package sizes, something known as “shrinkflation.”


There is some debate about the impact of some of the other factors, such as climate change, which produces erratic weather patterns such as droughts.


There is no letting up in the demand for butter and cheese, products that require significant amounts of milk fat. For decades, butter was vilified as unhealthy, but in recent years its image has improved thanks to studies that showed that fat is not as damaging to health as once believed.


Southern European countries, which rely far more heavily on olive oil, are less affected by the butter inflation—or they just don’t consider it as important since they consume so much less.


Since last year, the cost of butter shot up 44% on average in Italy—Europe’s seventh largest butter producer—but it is not causing the same alarm as in butter-addicted northern Europe.


This article was provided by The Associated Press.


Viewpoint Discussion

Enjoy a discussion with your tutor.

Discussion A

  • Some pastry chefs are using margarine instead of butter because of its high cost. But Arnaud Delmontel refuses to follow them. As a consumer, how important is it for you that the food you ordered follows its traditional or original recipe? Which do you think chefs should consider when making food: taste or cost? Why do you say so? In what situations do you think it is acceptable to replace an ingredient in a recipe with another ingredient? Discuss.
  • Should restaurants inform their customers if they have changed something in the recipe of a traditional dish? Why or why not? What would you do if the food you bought tasted different because of an ingredient change you didn’t know about? Discuss.

Discussion B

  • Southern European countries use less butter and rely more on olive oil, unlike Northern European countries which like butter a lot. In your country, which do people prefer: butter or oil? What do you think influences people’s preferences when choosing ingredients to use? Discuss.
  • What are some common cooking ingredients in your country that might surprise people from other cultures? What flavors do these items contribute to your traditional dishes? Discuss.