Butter sales rise amid viral butter board trend on TikTok

The viral TikTok butter board trend may be boosting butter sales.

The intrigue: Land O'Lakes says its total U.S. volume sales for sticks of butter rose 7.6% in the four weeks following the debut of a mid-September social media clip on the concept that went viral. Sales were also up 3.4% over the same period last year.

• Demand continued to soar through October, a spokesperson told Axios, with monthly sales up 18.2% over 2021.

Yes, but: Fall is also the unofficial start of the baking season, so it's impossible to say for sure what's driving demand for the dairy product.

Catch up quick: For the uninitiated, a "butter board" is like a stylized charcuterie board, but with... butter. The idea is to slather softened spread spread on a serving dish, sprinkle it with herbs, edible flowers or other toppings and scoop it up with your carb of choice.

• TikTok videos with the hashtag #Butterboard have been viewed on the platform more than 332 million times as of this week.

Be (food) safe: Our colleagues at Axios Seattle talked to public health experts about how to reduce the ick factor when eating from a shared board.