Noting that the Butter Act of 1923 gives the Food and Drug
Administration no leeway in enforcing a congressional statute that defines the
food as a dairy product, the American Butter Institute sent letters to the
chairmen and ranking members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and
the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, urging them to
compel FDA to enforce federal law against plant-based imposters that illegally
misuse the term "butter" as a marketing trick.
"When it comes to violations of the Butter Act
specifically, Congress did not give the Food and Drug Administration any
enforcement discretion on the matter," Tom Balmer, executive director of
the American Butter Institute, said in the letter. "Congress stated very
precisely the ingredients from which butter is to be made and its final
composition. FDA's non-action in enforcing what Congress has mandated
represents, in essence, a federal agency's rewriting of a Congressional act and
usurping Congressional authority."
Butter's definition has been settled law for more than a
century, covered by legislation dating to 1886. Imitators made from vegetable
oils have been able to use terms such as "margarine" and
"spread," ensuring a transparent marketplace. However, as butter's
popularity has grown in recent years -- per-capita U.S. consumption last year
reached its highest since 1968 -- marketing departments at brands such as
Country Crock have been breaking the law by calling their margarines and
spreads "plant-based butter" -- an attempt to cash in on butter's
popularity that tarnishes a product that has had a consistent identity for
generations.
"Words have meaning, power, and consequences,"
Balmer writes. "We know this. You know this. 'Misregulation,' 'confusion,'
'misinformation,' and 'obfuscate' are not terms that should be used to describe
the marketing of our nation's food supply. Accordingly, we urge you to continue
efforts to compel the Food and Drug Administration to enforce the statutory
definition of the term 'butter.'
The letter was released in conjunction with the
organization's annual conference, held this year in Tucson, Ariz. One year ago,
ABI filed a lengthy complaint to the FDA in September calling out imitators.
The organization also supports the National Milk Producers Federation's citizen
petition with the agency filed in February, outlining a roadmap toward a
constructive resolution of the problem of mislabeled, fake dairy products.