Milk and butter producers are calling on the US food regulator to investigate Country Crock’s use of ‘butter’ on the packaging for its dairy-free alternative.
Having already been at the receiving end of several lawsuits over the years, Flora Food Group’s Country Crock is now facing an attack from Big Dairy itself.
The company is being accused of using “unlawful” language on its packaging and capitalising on butter’s resurgence in the US in an “egregious attempt to mislead consumers” about dairy-free butter, in an official complaint filed by the American Butter Institute (ABI).
In a letter directed to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the association – part of the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) – argued: “There can be no mistake about the marketer’s intent to identify itself as butter, which is preferred by consumers, rather than what it really is, a plant-based spread similar to margarine.”
The products in question are part of Country Crock’s recently released Homestyle lineup, which are labelled as “Dairy-Free Salted/Unsalted Butter”, with “79% plant-based oil spread” written in smaller type underneath.
Big Butter invokes UPF and seed oil controversies
Country Crock combines a base of palm and canola oils with pea protein to produce butter sticks reminiscent of their dairy counterpart.
The ABI, however, argues that a Congressional statute from 1906 defines butter as a product “made exclusively from milk or cream, or both, with or without common salt, and with or without additional colouring matter, and containing not less than 80% by weight of milk fat”.
But Country Crock’s display panel features the image of a “traditional red barn associated with dairy farms” and of butter itself, and does not use modifiers like ‘artificially flavoured’, ‘imitation’, or ‘substitute’. Doing so dupes consumers into believing that dairy-free butter can exist, the association claims.
“It also creates an idea that this product meets the standards that have been set for butter, when in fact it doesn’t even meet the standard for margarine – itself an imitation of butter,” the letter says.
“In reality, this product is nothing more than a vegetable spread, made from commonplace edible plant-based oils and other ingredients, that is attempting to leverage the premium perception of real dairy butter maintained by most consumers,” it continues. “The manufacturer is clearly trying to confuse the consumer about what this product is, an ultra-processed seed oil concoction.”
The narrative hits home on concerns around ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and seed oils, which have taken the US plant-based industry by storm, thanks in large part to Robert F Kennedy Jr. The health secretary has repeatedly lambasted these food groups, instead championing grass-fed beef and saturated fats like tallow.
But experts say the misgivings around UPFs and seed oils aren’t accurate. Not all UPFs are bad for you – a packet of chips isn’t the same as a block of pre-seasoned tofu. And research has shown that swapping butter for plant-based seed oils could help you live longer.
Still, the ABI is not afraid to make things political. “There’s a lot of interest on the part of the Trump administration to have people eat more real foods, whole foods,” Chris Galen, executive director of the ABI and senior VP of the NMPF, said on rural TV. “This Country Crock product is a combination of canola and palm oil, but it’s not legal to call it that. At least not in our view, and hopefully, that will be the view of the FDA.”
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Galen labelled Country Crock’s usage of the term a “total oxymoron”, suggesting that it was looking to hop on butter’s renewed popularity by misappropriating the term. “Country Crock is attempting to leverage the premium perception of real dairy butter maintained by consumers,” he said.
In the US, year-on-year sales of butter jumped by 4% last year, as fears around seed oils continued to grip Americans. On the other hand, plant-based butter sales fell by 6% in 2024, with its share of the total butter market down by half a percentage point (4.7%).
While dairy-free butter still only makes up a fraction of the industry, it seems it has made enough of a dent to agitate the cattle industry. Country Crock hasn’t publicly responded to the complaint, though it’s not the first time it has faced such accusations. In 2019, the NMPF raised similar objections when the company launched its Plant Butter line.
The firm has also been hit with several class-action lawsuits for misleading labelling in the last few years, with complaints alleging that its Plant Butter is deceptively labelled as “made from olive oil” even though other plant-based fats appear in higher concentration, or that it falsely represents its butter as healthier than margarine.
But it has come out on top in some of these legal battles. Last year, an Illinois federal district court dismissed a lawsuit relating to the ingredient use, noting: “Packaging that merely depicts or asserts the presence of an ingredient typically cannot lead a reasonable consumer to conclude that the product contains a certain amount of that ingredient.”
In 2021, Miyoko’s Creamery won a First Amendment lawsuit after suing the state of California for preventing its use of ‘butter’ and ‘lactose-free’ on its non-dairy butter, with a district court ruling that it could permanently continue using these terms on packaging.
The ABI’s letter isn’t a formal enforcement action. However, it’s a move that will likely put pressure on the FDA to decide whether it should investigate Country Crock.
It is worth noting that the FDA’s updated draft guidance for the labelling of vegan alternatives recommends placing an emphasis on the plant-based sources that form their base. For example, instead of ‘plant-based’ or ‘dairy-free’, the FDA’s guidelines would see Country Crock’s Homestyle butter be labelled as ‘palm and canola butter’ instead.
That said, draft guidance documents aren’t legally enforceable either. Rather, they are recommendations that the FDA said reflect “current thinking on a topic”. It is currently reviewing public comments and working on the final version of the guidance. In its comment, the NMPF called the guidance an “unlawful precedent” that “propagates consumer misinformation” and “should be withdrawn”.
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