Buttergate

'''Buttergate''' was a 2021 event in which Canadian butter became more difficult to spread due to increased hardness. Canadian consumers expressed disappointment that butter stopped becoming soft at room temperature. Food experts attributed the hardness to an increased use of palm oil in dairy cattle diet, prompting the Dairy Farmers of Canada to recommend to farmers to cease adding palm oil to cow's diets.

== Butter manufacturing == thumb|Milk (left), and Buttermilk (right) Butter consistency is influenced by both the balance of ingredients added to milk fat, and the diet of the dairy cattle that produce the milk fat.<ref name="van Rosendaal 2021">{{cite news |last1=van Rosendaal |first1=Julie Van |title=Buttergate: Butter not as soft as it used to be? The pandemic and our urge to bake is partly to blame – along with palm oil |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/article-is-your-butter-not-as-soft-as-it-used-to-be-the-pandemic-and-our-urge/ |work=The Globe and Mail |date=20 February 2021 |access-date=23 August 2022 |archive-date=15 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815195328/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/article-is-your-butter-not-as-soft-as-it-used-to-be-the-pandemic-and-our-urge/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Butter ingredients === The primary ingredient in butter is milk fat, although butter also contains saturated fats which are solid at room temperature and mono- and polyunsaturated fats which are liquid at room temperature.<ref name="van Rosendaal 2021" /> Butter hardness is a result of the percentage mix of those ingredients.<ref name="van Rosendaal 2021" /> While European butter rules mandate fat content typically in the 82% to 85% range, Canadian regulations require 80% of butter to be milk fat.<ref name="van Rosendaal 2021" />

=== Milk-fat production === Canadian recipe writer Julie Van Rosendaal subsequently suggested that dairy farmers may have increased their use of palm oil in dairy cattle's diet, increasing the hardness of the milk fat they produced.<ref name="van Rosendaal 2021" /> Palm oil contains palmitic acid, has a melting point of {{convert|63|C|F}}, and increases the hardness of butter.<ref name="van Rosendaal 2021" />

== Timeline == Francis Halin from the Le Journal de Montreal reported on butter softness in February 2021,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Halin |first=Francis |title=De l'huile de palme des tropiques pour nourrir les vaches du Québec |url=https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2021/02/15/de-lhuile-de-palme-des-tropiques-pour-nourrir-les-vaches-du-quebec |access-date=2022-11-19 |website=Le Journal de Montréal |date=15 February 2021 |archive-date=2022-11-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221118103918/https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2021/02/15/de-lhuile-de-palme-des-tropiques-pour-nourrir-les-vaches-du-quebec |url-status=live }}</ref> the same month Twitter users replied to a tweet by Van Rosendaal in which she asked about other people's experience of butter not softening at room temperature.<ref name="van Rosendaal 2021" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Fieber |first=Palmela |date=2 March 2021 |title='Buttergate' goes viral, putting palm oil fat supplements in spotlight |work=CBC |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/buttergate-goes-viral-putting-palm-oil-fat-supplements-in-spotlight-1.5927194 |access-date=23 August 2022 |archive-date=30 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220930072650/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/buttergate-goes-viral-putting-palm-oil-fat-supplements-in-spotlight-1.5927194 |url-status=live }}</ref> Within a week of Rosendaal's follow-up article in the CBC, the surrounding scandal was labelled Buttergate.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite news |id={{ProQuest|2492836754}} |title=I can't believe it's not melting! 'Buttergate' worries Canadians |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |date=25 Feb 2021 |page=15 }}</ref>

== Causes == Van Rosendaal blamed the hardening on both an increase in home baking during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, and an increased use of palm oil.<ref name="BBC20210223">{{cite news |date=23 February 2021 |title=Buttergate: Why are Canadians complaining about hard butter? |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56175784 |access-date=23 August 2022 |archive-date=15 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815195326/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56175784 |url-status=live }}</ref> Retail butter sales increased 12.4% in 2020, while the number of dairy cows in Canada decreased, with a cull occurring when milk production reduced in response to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic; schools had previously bought milk for student consumption.<ref name="van Rosendaal 2021" /><ref name="BBC20210223" />

The Dairy Farmers of Canada initially rejected Van Rosendaal's assertions, before switching tactics to what ''The Economist'' called "grovelling,"<ref>{{cite news |title=Canadians are in a flutter about butter |url=https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2021/05/27/canadians-are-in-a-flutter-about-butter |newspaper=The Economist |date=27 May 2021 |access-date=5 September 2022 |archive-date=4 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220904021417/https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2021/05/27/canadians-are-in-a-flutter-about-butter |url-status=live }}</ref> making two statements in February 2021:<blockquote> There are many different factors that can have subtle impacts on the taste, texture and the melting point of butter, including differences in a cow's diet from one region to another or from one season to the next

Exact cow feed rations are determined at the farm level in consultation with animal nutrition experts and may impact the complexity of butter in various ways.<ref name="van Rosendaal 2021" /></blockquote>

Recent studies published in academic journals suggest that a strong correlation between palmitic acid and butter firmness existed, disputing the Dairy Farmers of Canada's claim that nothing was wrong.<ref name="Music Charlebois Marangoni et al 2022">{{cite journal |last1=Music |first1=Janet |last2=Charlebois |first2=Sylvain |last3=Marangoni |first3=Alejandro G. |last4=Ghazani |first4=Saeed M. |last5=Burgess |first5=Jesse |last6=Proulx |first6=Amy |last7=Somogyi |first7=Simon |last8=Patelli |first8=Yannick |title=Data deficits and transparency: What led to Canada's 'buttergate' |journal=Trends in Food Science & Technology |date=1 May 2022 |volume=123 |pages=334–342 |doi=10.1016/j.tifs.2022.02.005 |s2cid=246784393 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Marangoni |first1=Alejandro G. |last2=Ghazani |first2=Saeed M. |last3=Gammage |first3=Sarah |last4=Van Rosendaal |first4=Julie |last5=Music |first5=Janet |last6=Charlebois |first6=Sylvain |title=Higher palmitic acid and dipalmitoyloleate levels are correlated to increased firmness in commercial butter |journal=Food Chemistry |date=30 May 2022 |volume=377 |article-number=131991 |doi=10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.131991 |pmid=34995963 |s2cid=245631321 }}</ref>

Sylvain Charlebois, of the Agri-food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University noted that consumers initially blamed colder weather but opined that the most likely cause was an increase of palm oil in cow diet.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Charlebois |first=Dr Sylvain |date=2021-02-23 |title=Opinion: Buttergate and the 'hard' truth about Canadian butter |url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/opinion-buttergate-and-the-hard-truth-about-canadian-butter/ |access-date=2022-08-23 |website=Montreal |language=en |archive-date=2022-08-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220823143542/https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/opinion-buttergate-and-the-hard-truth-about-canadian-butter-1.5320211 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="BBC20210223" /><ref>{{cite news |last1=Kestler-D'Amours |first1=Jillian |date=4 March 2021 |title='Buttergate': Why isn't butter softening in Canada? |work=Al Jazeera |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/4/buttergate-why-isnt-butter-softening-in-canada |access-date=23 August 2022 |archive-date=2 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002053613/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/4/buttergate-why-isnt-butter-softening-in-canada |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Impact == In response to Buttergate, Dairy Farmers of Canada and The Quebec Milk Producers Association recommended that dairy farmers stop feeding palm oil to dairy cattle.<ref name=":1" /> Quebec-based dairy cooperative Agropur, welcomed The Quebec Milk Producers Association's advice.<ref name=":1" /> David Christensen, professor emeritus of animal science at the University of Saskatchewan, stated that the directives to not use palm oil will present production challenges for dairy farmers, as there was no equally effective alternative as palm oil for boosting fatty milk production.<ref name=":1" />

The Dairy Farmers of Canada created working group on the use of palm oil produced its final report in January 2022.<ref name=Blair2022>{{cite news |last1=Blair |first1=Jennifer |title=There's a lesson in 'buttergate' for all farmers, says food writer |url=https://www.albertafarmexpress.ca/livestock/theres-a-lesson-in-buttergate-for-all-farmers-says-food-writer/ |work=Alberta Farmer Express |date=13 April 2022 |access-date=23 August 2022 |archive-date=23 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220823145441/https://www.albertafarmexpress.ca/livestock/theres-a-lesson-in-buttergate-for-all-farmers-says-food-writer/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The working group concluded that butter hardening could not be "solely attributed" to palm oil supplementation.<ref name=Blair2022/> An academic also correlated palmitic acid content in butter with hardness, critiqued the lack of transparency in the Canadian dairy supply, which it linked to an inability to make firm conclusions linking agricultural practises with consumer products.<ref name="Music Charlebois Marangoni et al 2022"/>

== References ==

== External links ==

* {{Cite tweet |user=dinnerwithjulie |number=1357746758919483393 |title=Something is up with our butter supply, and I'm going to get to the bottom of it. Have you noticed it's no longer soft at room temperature? Watery? Rubbery? }}

Category:2021 scandals Category:2021 in Canada Category:2021 controversies Category:Butter