There is a scourge of hummus impostors making their way into American grocery store shelves — a problem that a major hummus manufacturer thinks requires the heavy hand of government regulation.

Sabra Hummus has petitioned the federal government to create a standard definition of what actually counts as "hummus." The Food and Drug Administration already does this with some other products like cream cheese (which must be 33 percent milk fat for manufacturers to market it as cream cheese). Sabra argues the hummus market has run amok; its time for Uncle Sam to step in.

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As a traditional Middle Eastern dip, hummus has two crucial ingredients: chickpeas and tahini (the latter being a paste made from ground sesame seeds). Sabra has surveyed the market and, in documents submitted to the FDA, finds these two ingredients decidedly lacking in many purported hummus products today. Here's a bit of their list of the worst violators (the full list is here).

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"The marketing of a 'hummus' product made from legumes other than chickpeas is akin to the marketing of guacamole made with fruit other than avocados," Sabra argues.