What is the difference between peanut butter and peanut paste?
Daniela Krehl from the Bavarian Consumer Center is a specialist advisor for the Food and Nutrition Department:
"Peanut butter often consists exclusively of pureed peanuts and is primarily used as an ingredient in baking and cooking. The pureeing process releases the oil, which makes up almost 50 percent of the peanut, and creates a creamy mass. Peanut butter has been on the market for some time and is primarily used as a spread. In addition to peanut oil, it usually contains other vegetable fats such as palm or rapeseed oil, as well as small amounts of salt or sugar. The added fats make it generally softer and easier to spread than peanut butter.
In the USA, peanut butter is a protected term, for which the law stipulates a 90 percent peanut content. In Germany, however, there is no official regulation that allows consumers to clearly distinguish between peanut butter and peanut paste. According to the guidelines of the German Food Code Commission (DLMBK) on oilseeds, peanut paste and peanut butter fall under the umbrella term "peanut paste." These guidelines only stipulate that up to 25 percent vegetable cooking oil may be added.
The distinction between peanut butter and peanut paste is therefore made solely by the manufacturer. When we see the term "peanut paste" on screw-top jars in the supermarket, only a glance at the ingredients list can guarantee that the product truly consists of 100 percent pureed peanuts. Conversely, depending on the manufacturer, peanut butter may contain only peanuts. Since peanuts contain more unsaturated fatty acids than palm or rapeseed oil, regardless of the term used, the product without additives is always healthier. In terms of calorie content, however, the difference is rather small.
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