In early 2021, there was something off with the butter in Canada that left many flustered residents looking for answers. For weeks, Canadians increasingly churned up debates on social media with anecdotes about “hard” butter that fails to spread as easily as it once did. “Something is up with our butter supply, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it,” wrote food writer Julie Van Rosendaal. While some residents blamed cold winter temperatures for the change in consistency, food experts began linking “buttergate” to the increased presence of a palm oil derivative, a conclusion that was dismissed by the dairy industry. That’s when alarm bells began to ring for food researcher Sylvain Charlebois. After calling trusted processors in the dairy sector, he discovered that the culprit was an increased use of palm oil fat on farms. Farmers regularly add palmitic acid to animal feed as an energy supplement that allows cows to produce more butter fat content, but the pandemic put pressure on dairy farmers. With people on lockdown baking more than ever, farmers had to find a way to produce more. That’s when they came up with the idea of increasing the palm oil in the feed. While adding palm oil to butter is legal, it’s not ethical. It wasn’t long before a group representing some of Canada’s major dairy producers yielded to mounting consumer pressure by calling for a ban on palm-based dairy products. They also asked food manufacturers to adjust their recipes accordingly, and they complied.
Buttergate: The Palm Oil Scandal
In early 2021, there was something off with the butter in Canada that left many flustered residents looking for answers. For weeks, Canadians increasingly churned up debates on social media with anecdotes about “hard” butter that fails to spread as easily as it once did. “Something is up with our butter supply, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it,” wrote food writer Julie Van Rosendaal. While some residents blamed cold winter temperatures for the change in consistency, food experts began linking “buttergate” to the increased presence of a palm oil derivative, a conclusion that was dismissed by the dairy industry. That’s when alarm bells began to ring for food researcher Sylvain Charlebois. After calling trusted processors in the dairy sector, he discovered that the culprit was an increased use of palm oil fat on farms. Farmers regularly add palmitic acid to animal feed as an energy supplement that allows cows to produce more butter fat content, but the pandemic put pressure on dairy farmers. With people on lockdown baking more than ever, farmers had to find a way to produce more. That’s when they came up with the idea of increasing the palm oil in the feed. While adding palm oil to butter is legal, it’s not ethical. It wasn’t long before a group representing some of Canada’s major dairy producers yielded to mounting consumer pressure by calling for a ban on palm-based dairy products. They also asked food manufacturers to adjust their recipes accordingly, and they complied.