A Dunkin’ Donuts customer asked for a buttered bagel. Is “buttered” the past tense of the act of spreading a congealed yellow substance on a bagel, or an adjective that describes the bagel itself after dairy-based butter has been applied to it? No, this is a real consumer question. Stop laughing.

A man in Worcester, Massachusetts, which is sort of near the Dunkin’ Mothership in Boston, ordered a bagel with butter. That is apparently a thing some people do if they don’t know that cream cheese exists. He bit into it and realized that the restaurant staff had applied margarine. He complained about the switch at the restaurant, and they confirmed that they use margarine, not butter. He turned to consumer reporter Mitch Lipka, who checked with Dunkin’ Donuts to see whether this is an actual policy or a horrific oleo oversight.

As it turns out, serving up margarine instead of butter is an actual policy at Dunkin’. Sometimes. The problem, a spokeswoman claims, is food safety. “For food safety reasons, we do not allow butter to be stored at room temperature,” she explained, “which is the temperature necessary for butter to be easily spread onto a bagel or pastry.” Yes. the company recommends that their stores serve individual butter packets with the bagel instead.

Dunkin’ Donuts is a franchised business, though, and different locations do things differently. This location in Worcester happens to “butter” their bagels with margarine, which would be fine if they gave consumers a heads-up, or a choice between having an employee spread margarine for them, or DIY butter pats.

Dunkin’ Donuts on slippery slope with its ‘butter’ [Boston Globe]

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