Heavy cream - shortages?

[AlaMoi]

anyone seeing empty shelves with no heavy (whipping) cream available?

 

this has been an on going issue at our local Giant.  DW checked with Weis this AM - no stock - employee stated no stock and nothing 'coming in'

what are the dairies doing with all the cream from the no-fat, low-fat, 1%, 2% milk?

there is no shortage of those . . .

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by Smithy
Adjusted title capitalization (log)

[lindag]

no shortages in this neck of the woods.

[pastrygirl]

13 minutes ago, AlaMoi said:

what are the dairies doing with all the cream

 

Making butter for holiday baking?

 

I haven't noticed shortages but I did notice price increases - a half gallon was $12 at the restaurant supply store vs the usual $9.

[dcarch]

Imagine my panic!

I promised everyone to make tiramisu for TG dinner and found empty shelves. Lot's of Half&Halfs, no whipping cream. 

After visited many stores buying many cans of cream-in-a-spray can, I found a few boxes of real heavy cream.

Now what should I do with all those spray cans? 🤫

 

dcarch

 

 

 

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by dcarch (log)

[weinoo]

Nothing wrong with a hit of nitrous.

[Tropicalsenior]

We went through a butter shortage in Costa Rica. For about 2 months we had to go from store to store and could maybe only find two or three sticks of butter on the shelves. When it did come back, they didn't have any butter in boxes, they were only selling it by the stick. We all asked the same thing. What are they doing with the cream? There was no shortage of milk or any other milk product.

[AlaMoi]

been searching . . . apparently the shortage of heavy cream dates back into 2022 - thought would be resolved by 2023....

obviously didn't happen.

 

all the usual mouth music - supply chain issues, labor shortages . . . all total BS - cream comes from raw milk, and there has never ever been a milk shortage - trifle hard to believe creameries are simply throwing away the cream because they have some supply chain / labor issue with putting it into cartons....or finding a truck to move it to markets alongside the milk . . .

[blue_dolphin]

I keep heavy cream on hand and fear I may get a rude surprise next time I’m shopping but I have not observed any shortages.

[AlaMoi]

yeah.  I have shelf stable ultra pasteurized (Amazon) whipping on order....

not something I need every week, but as there some artificial shortage in vogue, I opt to do best for me and screw the high demand price nuts.

 

[liuzhou]

I haven't seen what you call heavy cream in about 27 years! Not even available online.

 

 

[AlaMoi]

I have - the potentially not accurate... - impression most Asian cooking uses coconut "cream" vs cow cream?

[Duvel]

No shortage here … 15%, 32% or 40% cream available. Couple of brands, all supermarkets.

[weinoo]

None here either; plenty at Trader Joe's, local supermarket, and via Fresh Direct.

[liuzhou]

4 hours ago, AlaMoi said:

I have - the potentially not accurate... - impression most Asian cooking uses coconut "cream" vs cow cream?

 

South Asia and parts of S.E Asia do use coconut cream, but not in most of China. They use neither.

[IndyRob]

It's readily available here, but is more expensive, along with butter.  Not sure why, as milk is about the same price as always.

[Laurentius]

I have noticed rolling shortages of Half-n-Half at some retailers.

 

If there are any in the dairy industry here, please help me understand...  How can there be shortages of the cream fraction if all the milk and butter fractions are in their usual abundance?   is there some new stealth demand for the butterfat? 

[AlaMoi]

... how can there be . . .

indeed - "news" sources blame it on supply chain issues and labor shortages . . .

apparently when the tanker trucks bring the raw milk from the dairy farm to the creamery, somebody steals the cream bits enroute.

 

I found some from a small local creamery - they are strictly organic - and it's a small operation so I guess they've managed.

[DesertTinker]

This might be a part of the lack of retail supplies. Though it does seem to focus more on the 1/2 pint school/institutional size.

Milk Carton Shortage Disrupts Dairy Marketplace

 

[AlaMoi]

well, if they don't have small cartons to pack it, why are the coffee creamers and half-half, etc, etc, . . . all on the shelf in larger containers?

 

if they're not packing heavy cream in small or large containers, are they just pouring it down the drain?

 

seems to me there's some mega-lies in circulation . . .

[Dave the Cook]

I'm inclined to invoke Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." Goethe reworded it a bit (though perhaps one can blame the translator): "Why look for conspiracy when stupidity can explain so much?"

 

There are no lies, no plot by Big Milk to deprive us of butterfat. All (cow's) milk products start with whole milk, and there seems to be plenty of that around. So this alleged shortage is probably due to 1) the calendar (cream is always in short supply around the winter holidays, because everyone wants it); 2) incompetence in the purchasing of cream, rippling and being amplified through the production phase.

 

[Laurentius]

35 minutes ago, Dave the Cook said:

All (cow's) milk products start with whole milk, and there seems to be plenty of that around.

 

That's the nib of my (still unanswered) question.  It would be arch stupidity indeed if store buyers didn't anticipate increased demand for the fattier fractions.

 

I mean it's not like cracking crude oil into fuel--you can produce more gasoline at the expense of producing less diesel in order to keep diesel prices high.

[gfweb]

The local (hideous) Acme Market has seasonal heavy cream shortages because t hey run a BOGO sale right before cream-intense holidays eg Christmas. Idiots. More than once I've needed extra cream only to find that the (hideous) Acme is all out to cream hoarders.

 

This same place will post a big sign outside before a hurricane or blizzard saying to stock up before t he storm.  They are out of bread and milk PDQ.

 

Just reprehensible management.

[chromedome]

17 hours ago, AlaMoi said:

well, if they don't have small cartons to pack it, why are the coffee creamers and half-half, etc, etc, . . . all on the shelf in larger containers?

 

if they're not packing heavy cream in small or large containers, are they just pouring it down the drain?

 

seems to me there's some mega-lies in circulation . . .

I expect it comes down to prioritization. I don't know about the US, but up here the coffee creamers and half-and-half vastly outsell heavy cream, to judge by the number of facings in the dairy case and my own observation of other customers coming and going while I await my turn. If there's a packaging shortage, dairies will absolutely give priority to the higher-selling product.