The Odd Thing You Never Noticed About Aldi's Butter

For those who think butter is one of the most basic ingredients to keep on hand, there's a chance you could be missing a lot going on right under your nose. Butter can be a more complex issue than you might have ever suspected. It begins with the difference between salted and unsalted butter, too, because people have very definite opinions about which is better and when to use either.

The truth of the matter is that salted butter lasts longer due to the preservative qualities the salt has on the dairy product (via Cooking Light). Salted butter is more like a condiment rather than an ingredient too. Unsalted butter, as you may have guessed, is the opposite. It doesn't remain good for as long, and it is best for cooking or baking with, according to Cooking Light. But these are not the only differences between the two types of butter. 

A photo posted to Reddit by DavidPx sparked a long conversation about how butter is packaged. In the photo, which shows Aldi butter, the salted butter comes in a yellow and red box, but the butter itself is wrapped in paper with blue writing. Similarly, the unsalted butter comes in a blue box, but is wrapped in paper with red writing. The original poster simply asked why this was, and plenty of people responded with their thoughts.

The most up-voted answer is clearly the most popular and seems logical. It read, "butter is massed produced and graded long before it is packaged for retail sale. Notice the lack of brand on the inner wrapper. Just like canned veggies that sit unlabeled until a company contracts to buy them before they are labeled." With that explanation and the visual trickery of the photo, one commenter wrote, "never noticed and i buy these all the time...mind blown...cannot unsee...what has this world come to?" Another said, "I am always confusing the two, and now I will blame this as the reason why." But this doesn't only occur with Aldi butter.

One person wrote, "that is how Aldi gets that extra discount," but someone else was quick to suggest otherwise. In response, another comment said, "FWIW, pretty much all store brands are the same way. Just got done checking Google Images and store websites. HEB, Aldi, Publix, ShopRite, et al. They all have this same cross-color thing going on." So, take another look the next time you open your butter box. You just might be surprised.