Clover Spread 500g — ENGINEERED
Munch or Dump rates Clover Spread 500g by Clover ENGINEERED — score 30/90.
A lab-built butter substitute: refined vegetable oils (including palm) emulsified with a splash of buttermilk, water, salt, flavor and colour. It's a spreadable fat product engineered to mimic butter, not a whole food.
Why this verdict
- Refined vegetable oils (palm + rapeseed) are the #1 ingredient — this is a manufactured fat, not a whole food
- Water-in-oil emulsion with added colour to imitate butter = ultra-processed (NOVA-4)
- Palm oil pushes up the saturated fat despite the 'less than butter' spin
- Buttermilk is only ~20%; the 'made with buttermilk' story oversells a minor ingredient
- Very calorie-dense (nearly all fat) with essentially no fibre, protein or nutrition
Ingredients (6)
- Vegetable oils (Sustainable Palm, Rapeseed) (moderate) — Refined, industrially processed oils form the bulk of the spread. Palm is high in saturated fat; rapeseed is more heart-neutral. Either way this is a manufactured fat base, not a whole food.
- BUTTERMILK (safe) — A real dairy ingredient that carries the buttery flavour, but it's only about 20% of the product — a supporting player, not the star.
- Water (safe) — Added back as a filler/texture agent; harmless but dilutes.
- Salt (moderate) — Added for taste and mild preservation. Fine in small amounts but adds to daily sodium.
- Natural flavour (moderate) — An added flavouring engineered to make refined oils taste like butter. 'Natural' is a loose regulatory label — it's still a processing aid, not something you'd have in your kitchen.
- Colour: Carotenes (safe) — Plant-derived yellow pigment added purely to make the spread look like butter. Cosmetic, not nutritional, but harmless.