Peanut butter is a world delicacy. According to the American Association of Agronomy, we spend over $800 million a year on it. The average American child has 1,500 PB&J's before high school graduation. January 24 is National Peanut Butter Day in the US. We take peanut butter so seriously that according to Atlas Obscura, Stuart Parnell, the former CEO of the Peanut Corporation of America, was sentenced to 28 years in prison after knowingly shipping salmonella-tainted peanut butter in 2009. According to Ad Age, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are the most popular chocolate candy in America. Snickers, the world's #1 brand, contains peanuts as a main ingredient. FiveThirtyEight also ranked Reese's as the top Halloween candy. And I mean, come on, it makes sense. Chocolate and peanut butter is the world's best match up. Name a better one, I'll wait. You can even get peanut butter colored paint, and peanut butter interior in your car.
As it turns out, for peanut butter to be considered "peanut butter" in the United States, it has to contain at least 90% peanuts. While that seems like common sense, it didn't always used to be that way.
In 1959, the FDA revealed that items labeled as "peanut butter" only contained 75% or so peanuts. Consumers weren't happy about it and started referring to peanut butter as "peanut flavored face cream." Manufacturers were altering recipes to cut costs, such as hydrogenated oils being used instead of peanut oil and using alternative sugars. For the next 12 years, the FDA and the peanut butter industry fought back and forth over how much peanut is enough peanut.
According to Atlas Obscura, the FDA wanted peanut butter to be 95% peanuts. Jif, Peter Pan, Skippy, and the rest of the brands said “no.” The FDA then said 90%, the PB industry said 87%. In 1964, both sides finally met to try to compromise in what was called the "Peanut Butter Hearings." A few years of peanut butter corporate legal jargon and 8,000 transcript pages later, the hearings ended in favor of the FDA. Regardless, peanut butter moves slow as it took 5 years until the 90% peanut rule became standard in 1971.
Ruth Desmond was fundamental in the FDA landing the win. She was instrumental in getting changes implemented after the 1959 Cranberry Crisis that included cranberry sauce contaminated with weed killer. She eventually became known as "Peanut Butter Grandma" for her persistent fight.
The FDA is now more into fighting for accurate labeling than fighting for accurate food. Regardless, what exactly is in our food has become a hot topic as consumers have became more educated about food health.
From lies and misconceptions about the sugar content in cereal, to natural food being all-natural, to gluten-free always being a healthier alternative, the list goes on with instances of consumers being misled. While peanut butter being 90% peanut vs 87% peanut might seem like a silly difference to argue over, it's the principle about not letting consumers be purposefully misled, and in that case, the FDA made the right push, no matter how silly "Peanut Butter Hearings" sounds.
If you're not a big peanut butter person, but still want to experience the peanut butter life, you can pick up some peanut spread instead, which is less than 90% peanuts.
And a peanut butter international fun fact: in the Netherlands, peanut butter cannot be called "peanut butter", because by law, butter has to be actual butter. Instead, it's "peanut cheese." Not kidding.
*sources: Atlas Obscura, photo from Wonderopolis, American Association of Agronomy, Business Insider, FiveThirtyEight, Healthline, The Atlantic Online, Marketplace.
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