The Flavor Says...

The recalled 46,800 pounds of Kirkland Signature Unsalted Sweet Cream Butter and 32,400 pounds of Kirkland Signature Salted Sweet Cream Butter "list cream, but may be missing the Contains Milk statement," according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

80,000 pounds of Costco butter recalled for lacking disclaimer about milk

To me, this sounds like 40 tons of butter going to waste for regulatory reasons, but I suspect that it's indicative of, well, progress. Of a sort, anyway. I understand why some "social media users" were of the opinion that it's just "common sense" that butter has milk in it, but there is such a thing as vegan butter  (which I was pretty sure that we used to simply call "margarine"), after all. And so it's possible that someone could pick up some Kirkland Signature butter, and, if it wasn't on the label, not realize it was made from milk. Because most people don't need to know how their food is actually made.

For people with food allergies, what's in something is important, but the trip from raw materials to whatever it is they're examining on the grocer's shelves is another story. And that is progress, at least of a sort. Modern societies are built on division or labor and specialization, and what we're seeing here is a result of that; the concern that there are people who need to avoid taking in dairy products, but don't know what foods they might occur in if it isn't there on the labels. And maybe they shouldn't have to; that frees them up to concentrate on whatever their other tasks at hand are.

I'm sure that at some point, people not understanding where their food actually comes from will bite them in the butt, for one reason or another. Maybe it's because they find out that something taboo (but not actually harmful) is in their favorite dish, or Soylent Green does turn out to be made of people. But perhaps people not needing to know things that are basically just trivia to them is a good thing in the short run.