BUTTERFAT CRISIS COULD CREAM CONSUMERS.

Byline: Cliff Edwards Associated Press

Call it the Battle for the Bulge.

Across the nation, there's a shortage of butterfat, the stuff that makes ice cream, chocolate, pastries and other rich foods taste oh so good.

That's led to a pitched battle for the stuff among food manufacturers - a battle that could mean record prices for butter, ice cream, cheese and cream cheese.

Fat chance of finding a bargain this summer on the yummier things in life.

``I'd tell people to stock up, but I'm afraid that window of opportunity passed three weeks ago,'' said dairy consultant Mary Ledman of Libertyville, Ill. ``You're going to have to look long and hard to find anything with butterfat in it on special by the third quarter.''

Butterfat is the fatty part of milk that is processed out to make butter and also added to foods.

Americans have been greasing the wheels for an increase in prices for months, as flavor began to triumph over health consciousness. Food manufacturers have quietly been adding more fat to their products this year, and people have been lapping it up.

The problem is this: Nobody told the cows. They are still producing the same 3.6 pounds of butterfat for every 100 pounds of milk.

``As a result, we have the butter manufacturer competing against the cheese manufacturer, competing against the ice cream manufacturer, competing against the hundreds of products that use butterfat,'' Ledman said Tuesday. ``The cream, quite literally, is rising to the top for anybody who's willing to pay for it.''

For only the second time in history, the price of Grade AA butter has risen to $1.95 a pound, or 73 percent higher than a year ago, on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Butter is about 80 percent butterfat.

As a result, prices at the supermarket could rise to $3 a pound by late summer, economists said. Prices have been about $2 a pound for most of the year.

BUTTER SHORTAGE

Prices are rising partly because producers fell short of their usual winter peak:

Grade AA butter N.Y. spot price

July 1997: $1.13

Tuesday: $1.95

U.S. butter production, millions of pounds

'96: 125

'97: 125

'98: 116

SOURCES: Bridge News, National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA

CAPTION(S):

2 Charts

CHART: (1--2) BUTTER SHORTAGE (see text)

Knight Ridder Tribune