Amid the rising interest in plant-based foods, the formula for margarine was slightly tweaked to remove all animal ingredients, and plant butter was born. Except, again, it’s not butter. It’s margarine.
This makes plant-based butter a mislabeled food, a big no-no in the industry. It’s not following the legal definitions set by the CFR and the various laws that help regulate our food supply.
If it’s illegal, why hasn’t the government stepped in?
The Food and Drug Administration should be the regulating body to intervene, but so far, there’s only been crickets. It’s likely that recent budget cuts and chronic underfunding mean the FDA doesn’t have the manpower to attack a problem that isn’t actively harming American citizens. Margarine being mislabeled as butter is, for good reason, low on the list of priorities.