Yes, butter is getting harder

Canadian cookbook author Julie Van Rosendaal posted on Twitter in February 2021: “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?” Thus “Buttergate” was born—with many of Rosendaal’s followers tweeting about a coverup by the dairy industry. In response to Buttergate, Alejandro Marangoni and his co-authors from the University of Guelph have released a careful analysis of butter in the May 2022 edition of Food Chemistry. The researchers’ work reveals that increased palmitic acid in commercial Canadian butter significantly and positively correlated to its hardness. The researchers suggest that palmitic acid in animal feed supplementation may be responsible for the increased hardness of butter. The findings from Marangoni’s research highlights the need for more transparency and clearer communication from the dairy industry.