Best Butter Powder for Long Term Food Storage

Dehydrated butter powder is a great way to balance a long shelf life with an easy way to elevate any meal or dish. Butter has plenty of uses, and adding the powdered form to your pantry can make sense. All powdered butter isn’t made the same way, so you’ll run into a variety of tastes, nutrition profiles, and shelf life between the various brands. The best butter powder is the one that maximizes these qualities without breaking any budgets.

This is where we come in. We got our hands on a variety of powdered butter, compared them, taste-tested them, and now the results are in: the overall best, an option for stockpiling, and an upgrade option. If you want the best butter powder in your pantry, one our picks will push your dish, dinner, or snack to the next level.

Contents (Jump to a Section)

Judee’s is a great option if you are baking or looking to grab a smaller size to store. Since they started their manufacturing in 2010, they’ve brought a slew of great powdered products to stores. They print a one-year shelf-life on the pouches but we estimate that their spray-drying process combined with the packaging will help it keep longer when it is stored in a cool, dry space. The pouch we tested went well past the expected date, being printed with a 22-month ‘best by’ date.

The butter was straightforward to reconstitute: 1 tablespoon of powder to 1/2 teaspoon of water. It seems like a small amount of water at first, but with some whisking or stirring you’ll see it reconstitute quickly. If you’re using larger amounts of powder I found it easier to remember that its a 6:1 powder/water ratio.

The butter powder got the top marks in our taste test- on both the popcorn and toast. It was also the silkiest of the powders with the least amount of clumping straight out of the bag. This is a bit odd, because many other specifically included ingredients to prevent clumping- but Judee’s does not. The only two listed ingredients are butter and nonfat dry milk.

Specs

• Weight: 11.25-ounce package shown, 5-pound also available
• Servings: 45 tbsp
• Ingredients: Butter and nonfat milk
• Preserved: Industrial spray-dried
• Packaging: Resealable stand-up gusseted mylar pouch w/ oxygen absorber
• Shelf-Life: 1 year (our tested pouch showed 22 months)
• Manufactured: USA

For a simple and rich butter that keeps well in the pantry, pick up Judee’s Butter Powder.

Also available to buy at Walmart and at Augason Farms Direct.

Augason Farms is still at it, being the best bang for your buck with yet another food storage item for your pantry. The price per pound is unmatched when you are looking for shelf life, and the taste is still there too.

Opening the large #10 can starts the clock on a much lower pantry life, but it tastes good enough to add to any meal where it makes sense. You can also buy in the smaller pouches if you want the same shelf life without worrying about how quickly to use up the 3+ pound bulk powder.

The reconstitution ratio is a bit odd to work with, but it’s 1/4 cup powder to 2-1/4 tsp water. If you don’t feel like converting, that’s a 16:3 powder/water ratio. The upside of this ratio is that is requires about 1/4 less water usage than most other brands we tried.

Specs

• Weight: 36-ounce can shown, 10-ounce pouch also available
• Servings: 510 tsp
• Ingredients: Butter and nonfat milk with 2 added vitamins (Vitamin E, Vitamin C)
• Preservation: Industrial spray-dried
• Packaging: Resealable #10 can w/ oxygen absorber
• Shelf Life: 10 years
• Manufactured: USA

If you are looking to pick up some butter powder to stockpile, load up on Augason Farms Butter Powder.

Also available to buy at Walmart and directly from Nutrient Survival.

Nutrient Survival has been cracking the code when it comes to freeze-dried food with their patented process and focus on nutrition (they are the upper-end pick from our best emergency food supplier review). Their powdered vitamin butter has already been selling like hotcakes despite them being one of the youngest food suppliers out there.

While the nutrition profile is what they hang their hat on, the real excellence is on the attention to detail. By packing in a #10 can with an oxygen absorber they maximize the shelf life. Besides being healthy-ish butter with a laundry list of vitamins and minerals, it still got high marks in our taste testing. The sole drawback is that it costs a bit more than some other brands, but even then- it’s not an astronomical difference.

Reconstituting the butter is as simple as mixing (whisking or stirring) together a 6:1 powder/water ratio. They print this on the can as a serving being 1 tbsp of powder and 1/2 tsp of water.

Specs

• Weight: 37 ounces
• Servings: 204 tbsp
• Ingredients: Butter and nonfat milk with 16 added vitamins/minerals
• Preservation: Freeze-dried (patented process)
• Packaging: Resealable #10 can
• Shelf Life: 10 years
• Manufactured: USA

If you want some dehydrated butter that’ll taste great today or 10 years from now, get Nutrient Survival Powdered Vitamin Butter.

Comparison Table

Type	Pick	Price*	Size	Shelf Life (Months)
Judee’s Butter Powder	Best Overall	$17	11oz	22
Augason Farms Butter Powder	Stockpile	$25	36oz	120
Nutrient Survival Vitamin Butter	Upgrade	$32	37oz	120
It’s Just! Grass-Fed Butter Powder		$18	9oz	18
Anthony’s Premium Butter Powder		$19	16oz	2
Hoosier Hill Farm Real Butter Powder		$20	16oz	12
Emergency Essentials Butter Powder		$25	31oz	120
Ready Hour Butter Powder		$28	32oz	120
Readywise Simple Kitchen Butter Powder		$33	36oz	120

How We Tested the Butter

Our research narrowed the field down to a few powdered butter brands that we tested: Augason Farms, Judee’s, Readywise, Hoosier Hill, Anthony’, Nutrient Survival, and more.

You can see our full list of review criteria below in the What to Look For section, with an explanation for each.

First, we compared calories, serving count, cost, nutrition information, shelf life, and other packaging notes (see nutritional content). After comparing the numbers, we got to the nitty-gritty of taste-testing them. For the first round of taste-tests, we compared the powder form by sprinkling them generously on popcorn. Next, we reconstituted the powders into butter spread by following the exact mixing instructions on the packages and spreading the result on toast (wheat bread).

We’re always looking for new and better vittles for food storage, so if you have some powdered butter that you swear by let us know in the comments. We review most of our tested reviews annually, so we can always get it in the next roundup round and see if it makes the cut and we can see if it will beat out our top picks.

What to Look For

The best butter powder has several important features to look for:

1. Value
2. Taste
3. Nutritional Content
4. Preservation & Packaging
5. Shelf-Life

Powdered butter can elevate most meals when you get the right combination of these features. Below, we break down how each of them matter for the different brands of butter powders that rise above the rest.

Value: Cost vs. Benefit

The amount of money you spend on something like powdered butter shouldn’t blow out your entire budget. Butter isn’t a necessity for long-term food storage plans or survival in general. While it’s worthwhile to have on hand for baking and elevating snacks and dishes- there are substitutes and even ways to make your own butter with different ingredients.

All that said, it’s nice to have on hand- but you don’t want to get the wrong thing. We encountered a few brands that had terrible shelf life, severe clumping issues, or almost non-existent taste.

Taste

We always look forward to these type of taste-tests- we’ve had much worse tasks than taste testing butter on our plate! Taste is subjective, so we gather more than one tester for these reviews so we can make sure we’re not picking an outlier. We tried the butter powders sprinkled on popcorn for starters, and then reconstituted the powders into butter spreads for test for the second half of the taste-test.

We did not use the powder in any baking recipes, but the two taste-tests we conducted had enough consensus between them that we’re confident we have chosen the best performers overall.

Nutritional Content

Butter powder inherently has fat, protein, and carbs but not all butter powder is created equal. Some powders lose nutrients (and taste) through the drying process. Others have nutrients added for preservation or specifically to be nutritionally better than the competition.

We don’t think of butter as being nutritious- it’s usually a decadent condiment or baking staple that adds richness to recipes. Sometimes, butter is cut for vegan diets or people who want less fat in the dish.

Despite it’s typical uses or omissions- the nutrient profile can help when picking out which powder to store. Many brands see a drop in fat content, protein, and calories after processing due to the combination of non-fat milk powder. Because of this, you can see a wide variation in macro nutrient content across the board.

Brand	Calories	Protein	Fat	Carbs
Judee’s	45	1g	4g	2g
Augason Farms	35	0g	3.5g	1g
Nutrient Survival	35	0g	3.5g
It’s Just!	50	0g	6g
Anthony’s	40		4g
Hoosier Hill Farm	60	1g	6g	1g
Emergency Essentials	45		4.5g	1g
Ready Hour	35	0g	3.5g	1g
Readywise	35	0g	3.5g

Preservation & Packaging

The three main ways to produce powdered butter include spray-drying, freeze-drying, and post-reconstitution. Here are the main difference in these methods:

• Spray-drying – The most common manufacturing method for dehydrating butter involves preheating the butter to melt it, and then spraying it into a heated chamber to dry. The powder forms and leaves the chamber with the air continuously, collected by a filter or sieve.
• Freeze-drying – This time-consuming and less common method involves pouring melted butter on a tray, and then placing the tray in a freeze dryer. Compared to spray-drying, this slightly improves taste and shelf life. It cannot be done at home with your own freeze-drying equipment because it requires specialized equipment for the high fat content. Our upgrade pick likely uses the freeze-drying method, although they do not disclose the specifics as it is patented.
• Post-Reconstitution – Not quite the same as other methods, but this method involves preserving the main ingredients of butter (heavy cream, and possibly salt). After reconstituting those ingredients, you process the cream by whipping or churning into butter.

Most brands package the dehydrated powder into plastic or mylar bags. Some include oxygen absorbers to increase shelf life further. Others use metal cans with a one-time seal under the lid for an airtight container (usually #10 can size).

Shelf-Life

We saw a wide range of shelf-life labels on the powdered butter we reviewed and tested, usually because it comes in different packaging. Mylar bags and metal cans are the best (as we mentioned above).

Some of them had terrible shelf life from what looked like poor warehouse management. Shipping expired product (or near-expired) is inexcusable in modern times where FIFO (first in, first out) storage is easy to implement, and product cycling is the best practice.

Does Butter Powder Taste Like Real Butter?

Unlike many other powders that we have tried, butter powder is one of the least-similar to the real thing. Reconstituted powder is much closer to a butter spread than a stick of butter, usually because it has been diluted with milk powder as well.

Butter is high in fat, so it is one of those foods that is more difficult to dehydrate into a powder (we’ll get more into that below when we talk about how to make DIY butter powder).

Some brands have slightly better quality, which can affect the taste. The different methods of dehydrating the butter, and how much milk powder is used in the final powder blend can all affect how rich the butter is. Different amounts of salt can come into play as well.

Make sure you reconstitute the butter according the the brand’s packaging directions- it can vary widely between brands. We saw some powders require a 1:1 reconstitution compared to a 1:2 water/powder mix- which is a pretty big difference. When you don’t add enough water you can get a gritty result. Add too much water and you get a soupy paste rather than the spread consistency you expect.

Homemade DIY Dehydrated Butter

Dehydrating butter is incredibly difficult without a freeze dryer. The amount of milk powder you have to add makes it questionable if it is even considered butter when you are done, if you want to avoid a sticky, oily mess.

Even with a freeze dryer- the fat content makes it so you can’t freeze dry actual butter. Instead, you get it done with a substitute.

Heavy Cream.

Instead of freeze-drying butter- freeze dry heavy cream and make butter using a whisk in the reconstitution process. It’s not a fast process, but it’s the only way the community has figured it out without buying butter powder from a manufacturer.

Who Needs Butter Powder?

Powdered butter isn’t a necessity for your food storage plan, but it’s nice to have on hand to elevate sometimes stale food-storage dishes.

Butter powder is suggested for these kits:

Sometimes little luxuries, like butter and condiments can make a huge difference in your meals and your morale. These things matter during emergencies, so a small splurge now can have big payoffs down the road.

Sources and References

All of our experience and the testing we do to find the best powdered butter are useless without listing our research sources and references. We leaned on these for the book knowledge that we paired with our hands-on testing and practical military and prepping experience:

Chandan, R., et al. (2011). Dairy Ingredients for Food Processing. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. (Source)

Hansen, P. (1963). Manufacture of Butter Powder. Australian Journal of Dairy Technology. Volume 18. Issue 2. Pages 79 – 86. (Source)

Hansen, P. (1963). The Baking Performance of Butter Powder. Australian Journal of Dairy Technology. Volume 18. Issue 2. Pages 86 – 91. (Source)

The Final Word

Powdered butter is a versatile food product that can add some serious longevity to a condiment and baking staple. Add flavor and richness to your dishes, whether it’s today or a decade from now by storing some in your long-term food storage.

If you’re interested in more prepper pantry guides and reviews, our readers have found these helpful:

We presented quite a lot of information, but as always: if you have any questions let us know and we would be happy to help. Our research, comparison, and taste-testing found Judee’s Butter Powder to be the best option given its value, taste, nutritional content, preservation method, packaging, shelf-life, and quality.

Keep exploring, stay prepared, and be safe.

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