Land O Lakes Olive Oil Butter: What Is Actually in the Tub
People searching for Land O Lakes olive oil butter are usually standing in front of a chiller cabinet with a specific, practical question: is this real butter, is there any actual olive oil in it, and will it behave like butter when I cook? The product exists — Land O'Lakes sells it as Butter with Olive Oil & Sea Salt — and it is genuinely unusual, because almost everything else sold as an olive oil spread is a blend of rapeseed and palm oil in which olive oil is a minority ingredient. This one is not that. It has four ingredients and cream is the first of them. The interesting questions are what US law lets it call itself, and how much olive oil is really in there.
For our own oil, see our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil.
The Short Answer
- The product is Land O Lakes Butter with Olive Oil & Sea Salt, a soft tub product sold in 7 oz, 13 oz and 21 oz sizes. Its declared ingredients, in order, are: Pasteurized Sweet Cream, Olive Oil, Salt, Sea Salt. That is the whole list.
- There is no palm oil, no rapeseed or canola oil, no added water and no emulsifier — which is what separates it from the tub spreads the phrase "olive oil butter" usually describes.
- It is not butter in the legal sense. US law defines butter as being made exclusively from milk or cream with not less than 80 per cent milk fat. This product contains olive oil and declares 10 g of total fat per 14 g serving — roughly 71 per cent fat — so it is sold under a descriptive name rather than a standardised one.
- Land O'Lakes does not publish how much olive oil is in it. We checked the product page and the SmartLabel entries for all three pack sizes; no percentage is declared anywhere.
- The nutrition panel does tell you something. The declared fat is about 45 per cent saturated and about 45 per cent monounsaturated. Butterfat on its own is roughly two-thirds saturated, so that split is only consistent with a substantial olive oil fraction — though panel rounding means it cannot give you an exact figure.
- These are statements about composition and nothing more. Sidr & Stone does not make a spread, and does not make health claims for one.
What Land O Lakes Butter with Olive Oil & Sea Salt Actually Is
Land O'Lakes describes it on its own product page as "the rich creaminess of the butter you love, with the goodness of olive oil", made "with simple ingredients" and "spreadable right out of the refrigerator". Marketing copy aside, the ingredient declaration is the useful part, and it is unusually short.
Read that list against a typical olive oil spread and the difference is immediate. A conventional tub spread is a water-in-oil emulsion: blended vegetable oils, water, emulsifiers, salt, often buttermilk and added vitamins, with olive oil somewhere down the list. Our guide to the two things people mean by olive oil butter takes that category apart in detail, including what the European designation rules require and how much olive oil the named brands actually declare. This product does not belong to that category. It is a dairy product with an oil blended into it, which is a different piece of food engineering.
| Declared on pack | Land O Lakes Butter with Olive Oil & Sea Salt |
|---|---|
| Ingredients, in order | Pasteurized Sweet Cream, Olive Oil, Salt, Sea Salt |
| Allergen statement | Contains: Milk |
| Serving size | 1 Tbsp (14 g) |
| Calories | 90 |
| Total fat | 10 g |
| Saturated fat | 4.5 g |
| Monounsaturated fat | 4.5 g |
| Polyunsaturated fat | 0.5 g |
| Trans fat | 0 g |
| Cholesterol | 15 mg |
| Sodium | 95 mg |
| Carbohydrate / protein | 0 g / 0 g |
| Other claims | Gluten-free |
| Olive oil percentage | Not declared |
One structural note before going further. Land O'Lakes' full product catalogue runs to just under two hundred listed items across butter and spreads, margarine, plant-based, cheese, eggs and cream. Exactly one of them is an olive oil product. The company also sells a Butter with Canola Oil, a Light Butter with Canola Oil and a separate margarine line — so the olive oil version is a single variant in a tub-butter family, not a range.
Why It Is Not Legally "Butter" in the United States
This is where most articles on the subject go wrong, because they reach for European rules. The spreadable fats designations that govern what a tub can be called in the UK and the EU do not apply to a product sold in American supermarkets. The United States has its own standards, they are older, and they are structured differently.
The definition of butter in the US is statutory rather than regulatory. Under 21 U.S.C. § 321a, butter means "the food product usually known as butter, and which is made exclusively from milk or cream, or both, with or without common salt, and with or without additional coloring matter, and containing not less than 80 per centum by weight of milk fat". The operative word is exclusively. A product containing olive oil falls outside that definition on the ingredient test before you even reach the fat threshold.
Margarine has its own standard of identity at 21 CFR 166.110, which describes it as "the food in plastic form or liquid emulsion, containing not less than 80 percent fat", made from edible fats or oils with an aqueous phase, and which must contain vitamin A at not less than 15,000 international units per pound. Land O'Lakes' olive oil tub does not meet that either: its declared 10 g of fat per 14 g serving works out at roughly 71 per cent, below the 80 per cent floor, and no added vitamin A is declared.
| US standard | What it requires | Does this product meet it? |
|---|---|---|
| Butter — 21 U.S.C. § 321a | Made exclusively from milk or cream, with or without salt and colouring; not less than 80% milk fat by weight | No — it contains olive oil, and declares roughly 71% total fat |
| Margarine — 21 CFR 166.110 | Not less than 80% fat; an aqueous phase; vitamin A at not less than 15,000 IU per pound | No — below the 80% fat floor, and no added vitamin A declared |
| Descriptive compound name | No standard of identity; the name has to describe the food and the ingredients must be declared in order | Yes — which is why the pack reads "Butter with Olive Oil & Sea Salt" |
None of this is a criticism. The label is accurate and the name does exactly what a descriptive name is supposed to do: it tells you there is butter in it and olive oil in it, in that order. The point is narrower and worth holding onto — if you have read that olive oil spreads must be at least 80 per cent fat, you have read a European rule, and it does not describe this product.
How Much Olive Oil Is Actually in It?
Land O'Lakes does not say. We looked in the three places the number would live — the product page on landolakes.com, the SmartLabel entries linked from it for all three pack sizes, and the nutrition panels themselves — and no proportion is declared in any of them. American labelling does not generally require an ingredient percentage the way a European quantitative ingredient declaration sometimes does, so the absence is lawful and ordinary. It is still an absence.
What you can do is reason from the fat breakdown, carefully. Of the 10 g of total fat in a tablespoon, 4.5 g is declared saturated and 4.5 g monounsaturated, with 0.5 g polyunsaturated. That is a fat that is about 45 per cent saturated. Butterfat on its own sits at roughly two-thirds saturated and only about a quarter monounsaturated; olive oil is the mirror image, dominated by monounsaturated oleic acid, which typically makes up 55–83 per cent of its fatty acids depending on origin and variety. A blend landing at a near even split between the two families is only consistent with a meaningful proportion of the fat coming from the olive oil.
The cholesterol figure points the same way. Cholesterol in this product can only come from the dairy fraction, because olive oil contains none. A tablespoon declares 15 mg, which is materially less than a tablespoon of butter alone would carry.
What none of that gives you is a percentage, and it would be dishonest to present one. Nutrition panels round — 4.5 g is a rounded value, and small changes in the rounding move the answer by a lot. The honest conclusion is directional: this is a genuine blend in which olive oil is doing real work, not a token inclusion for the front of the pack. That is a better answer than most spreads earn, and it is still not a number you can check.
The pattern of a small proportion of olive oil carrying a whole product's name is common enough that we have written about it separately; our piece on the olive oil blend covers how it works and why the ingredients list is the only reliable guide. This product is the more honest end of that spectrum, but the principle is the same: read the list, not the front.
Does It Cook and Bake Like Butter?
Partly, and the limits are predictable from the composition rather than from the brand. Because it is softer than block butter and lower in total fat, it spreads straight from the refrigerator — which is the point of it — and it will sauté and grease a tin perfectly well.
Where it diverges is anywhere the recipe depends on the fat being solid or on a fixed fat-to-water ratio. Creamed sponge cakes need air beaten into firm butter and sugar. Laminated pastry needs sheets of solid fat that steam apart in the oven. Shortbread needs a fat that stays short at room temperature. A softer, lower-fat blend is a poor substitute in all three, and no amount of technique fixes it.
Substitution is its own subject with its own arithmetic, and we are not going to duplicate it here. Our article on olive oil butter and the butter swap carries the full ratio table for every common use, and our complete guide to olive oil for baking deals with the crumb, the ratios and which bakes actually suit the swap. For the pan rather than the oven, our piece on olive oil for frying covers what happens at heat.
The short version: treat it as a spread that cooks acceptably, not as a baking fat.
The Objections Worth Taking Seriously
The first objection is that this is just a spread dressed up as butter, and that the olive oil is decoration. On the evidence, that one does not hold. Four ingredients, cream first, no palm or rapeseed, no added water, no emulsifiers, and a fatty acid profile that is nearly half monounsaturated — that is a real blend. The fair criticism is the undisclosed proportion, not the formulation.
The second is the one everybody actually wants answered: is it better for you than butter? We are not going to make that argument, because it would be a health claim about a food and this is not the place for one. What can be said is compositional and no more: it declares less total fat, less saturated fat and less cholesterol per tablespoon than butterfat alone would, and rather more monounsaturated fat. Whether that matters for any individual is a question for a qualified professional who knows the rest of their diet, not for a label.
The third objection is aimed at us, and it is fair. If we think undisclosed proportions are a problem, what do we publish? Our oil is a single ingredient, so the proportion question does not arise — but we publish no laboratory chemistry for it either, and the comparison table below says so in plain terms rather than quietly omitting the row. Our first harvest is on pre-order, with estimated shipping from November 2026; when we have a panel, we will publish the figures.
Why Sidr & Stone
We do not make a spread and have no plans to. A blend is a formulation problem — how to get two fats to behave as one at fridge temperature — and it is a legitimate one that Land O'Lakes has solved more honestly than most. Our argument runs the other way: one ingredient, pressed once a season, where the only variable is the fruit.
| What the producer publishes | Land O Lakes Butter with Olive Oil & Sea Salt | Sidr & Stone Marrakech olive oil |
|---|---|---|
| Full ingredient list | Yes — four ingredients, in order | Yes — one ingredient |
| Proportion of olive oil | Not declared | Not applicable — it is the whole product |
| Origin of the olives | Not stated | One family grove on the plains outside Marrakech |
| Free acidity, peroxide value, polyphenols | Not published | Not published |
| Nutrition panel | Yes, per 14 g serving, for each pack size | Not published |
| Grade of the oil used | Declared only as "olive oil" | Extra virgin, unfiltered, cold-pressed |
- Single-estate — one family-owned grove on the plains outside Marrakech, Morocco, with no blending across origins.
- Rain-fed — no irrigation; the trees take what the season gives them.
- Organically grown — no synthetic fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides.
- Single harvest — a small, limited batch pressed once a season; when it is gone, it is gone until the next one.
- Cold-pressed within hours of harvest — flavour, aroma and polyphenols preserved.
- Unfiltered extra virgin — minimally processed, so it may show a little natural sediment.
- 100% natural — one ingredient, olive oil, and nothing added.
- Dark glass with a gold label — packaging that protects the oil from light.
- Halal certified.
- 10% of profits to charity — a commitment that applies across every Sidr & Stone product.
- Fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
We will not tell you Sidr & Stone is the best olive oil — that would be the very kind of claim this article has been checking other people's labels for. What we will say is that our oil is single-estate Moroccan, rain-fed, organically grown and cold-pressed within hours of harvest, and that the evidence of that care is in the taste, the colour and the size of the season's small batch.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Land O Lakes olive oil butter?
It is Land O'Lakes Butter with Olive Oil & Sea Salt, a soft tub product sold in 7 oz, 13 oz and 21 oz sizes. Its declared ingredients are pasteurized sweet cream, olive oil, salt and sea salt, and it is formulated to be spreadable straight from the refrigerator.
Is Land O Lakes olive oil butter real butter?
Not in the legal sense. US law defines butter as being made exclusively from milk or cream, with or without salt and colouring, containing not less than 80 per cent milk fat. This product contains olive oil and declares roughly 71 per cent total fat, so it is sold under a descriptive compound name rather than as standardised butter.
How much olive oil is in it?
Land O'Lakes does not declare a percentage — not on the product page and not in the SmartLabel entries for any of the three pack sizes. The nutrition panel shows the fat is about 45 per cent saturated and about 45 per cent monounsaturated, which is only consistent with a substantial olive oil fraction, but rounding on the panel means it cannot give you an exact figure.
Does it contain palm oil or canola oil?
No. The declared ingredient list is pasteurized sweet cream, olive oil, salt and sea salt. Land O'Lakes sells a separate Butter with Canola Oil and a separate margarine line, but the olive oil version contains neither canola nor palm oil, and no added water or emulsifiers.
Can you bake with olive oil butter?
For some things. It will grease a tin and works in simple batters, but it is softer and lower in fat than block butter, so it is a poor substitute anywhere the recipe needs the fat to stay solid — creamed sponge cakes, shortbread and laminated pastry in particular. Our guide to olive oil for baking covers which bakes suit the swap.
Is it the same as an olive oil spread?
No, and the distinction is the whole point. A conventional olive oil spread is an emulsion of blended vegetable oils and water in which olive oil is usually a minority ingredient behind rapeseed and palm. This is a dairy product with olive oil blended into it, with four ingredients and no emulsifiers.
Is it gluten-free?
Land O'Lakes declares the product gluten-free on its own product page, and lists milk as the only allergen. As always, check the pack in front of you, since formulations and allergen statements can change between production runs.
Is olive oil a medicine?
No. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine. It has a long traditional history — including being honoured in the Prophetic Sunnah — and a substantial body of modern research, particularly around polyphenols, cardiovascular health, and the Mediterranean diet pattern. It can be a worthwhile part of a healthy routine, but it does not cure diseases and is not a substitute for medical care. Be cautious of any olive oil marketed with specific disease-cure claims.
Final Thoughts
The reason this product is worth a whole article is that it breaks the rule the category taught everyone. The standard advice about olive oil spreads — turn the tub round, and you will find rapeseed and palm ahead of the olive oil — is good advice, and it is simply not true here. Four ingredients, cream first, olive oil second, nothing else but salt.
What it is not is butter, and the law is unusually clear about why. Butter in the United States has to be made exclusively from milk or cream at not less than 80 per cent milk fat; margarine has to reach 80 per cent fat with added vitamin A. This sits below both thresholds and outside both definitions, which is exactly why it carries a long descriptive name instead of a short standardised one. That is the label working correctly, not a loophole.
The one thing we would want and cannot get is the proportion. The panel says the olive oil is doing real work; it will not say how much. If you want to know precisely how much olive oil you are eating, the only reliable way is still to buy olive oil, and to know something about the bottle you are buying — which is what our guide to choosing a quality olive oil is for.
Our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil — single-estate, rain-fed, organically grown and pressed within hours of harvest — is open for pre-order on its limited first harvest. Estimated shipping from November 2026. Fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
Pre-Order Sidr & Stone Organic Marrakech Olive Oil — Limited First Harvest →
Disclaimer: This article describes one named product's publicly declared ingredients, nutrition information and labelling, together with United States standards of identity as they stood at the time of writing; formulations, panels and regulations change, and readers should check the pack in front of them and current official sources. All statements about Land O'Lakes are drawn from the company's own published product information and are made in good faith and in fair terms. References to Land O'Lakes describe general product observations and are not affiliated with or endorsed by Land O'Lakes. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine, and is not a substitute for medical treatment of any condition. For any health concern or personal dietary guidance, consult a qualified medical professional.