Margarine

Margarine in a tub

Margarine (pronunciation: mar-jar-in), as a generic term, can indicate any of a wide range of butter-substitutes. In many parts of the world, margarine has become the best-selling table spread, although butter and olive oil also command large market shares. Margarine is an ingredient in the preparation of many other foods. In many regions people commonly refer to margarine as butter in informal speech, but (at least in the United States) laws forbid food packaging to refer to margarine as "butter". Recipes sometimes refer to margarine as oleo (see below) or as shortening.

History

Margarine has a long and sometimes confusing history. Its name originates with the discovery by Michel Eugène Chevreul in 1813 of "margaric acid" (itself named after the pearly deposits of the fatty acid, from Greek margaron, meaning "a pearl-oyster" or "a pearl"). Scientists at the time regarded margaric acid, like oleic acid and stearic acid, as one of the three fatty acids which, in combination, formed most animal fats. In 1853 the German chemist Wilhem H. Heintz analyzed margaric acid as simply a combination of stearic acid and of the previously unknown palmitic acid.

In 1869 Emperor Louis Napoleon III of France offered a prize to anyone who could make a satisfactory substitute for butter, suitable for use by the armed forces and the lower classes. French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriés invented a substance he called oleomargarine, the name of which became shortened to the trade name "Margarine". Margarine now refers generically to any of a range of broadly similar edible oils. Some people have also shortened the name oleomargarine to oleo.

Manufacturers produced oleomargarine by taking clarified beef fat, extracting the liquid portion under pressure, and then allowing it to solidify. When combined with butyrin and water, it made a cheap and more-or-less palatable butter-substitute. Sold as Margarine or under any of a host of other trade names, butter-substitutes soon became a substantial market segment — but too late to help Mège-Mouriés: although he expanded his initial manufacturing operation from France to the United States in 1873, he had little commercial success. By the end of the decade both the old world and the new could buy artificial butters.

From that time on, two main trends would dominate the margarine industry: on one hand a series of refinements and improvements to the product and its manufacture, and on the other a long and bitter struggle with the dairy industry, which defended itself from the margarine industry with vigour. As early as 1877 the first U.S. states had passed laws to restrict the sale and labelling of margarine. By the mid-1880s the United States federal government had introduced a tax of two cents per pound, and devotees needed an expensive license to make or sell the product. More importantly, individual states began to require the clear labelling of margarine, banning passing it off as real butter.

The key to slowing margarine sales (and protecting the established dairy industries), however, emerged as restricting its color. Margarine naturally appears white or almost white: by forbidding the addition of artificial colouring-agents, legislators found that they could keep margarine off kitchen tables. Bans on coloration became commonplace around the world and endured for almost 100 years. It did not become legal to sell colored margarine in Australia, for example, until the 1960s.

Margarine sold in Quebec, Canada is of the pale, uncoloured variety, as it remains illegal to sell colored margarine in that province. This is done so that consumers will not confuse butter with margarine at the store.

Margarine in the USA

In the United States, the color bans, drafted by the butter lobby, began in the dairy states of New York and New Jersey. In several states, the legislature enacted laws to force margarine manufacturers to add pink colorings to make the product look unpalatable, but the Supreme Court struck down New Hampshire's law and overruled these measures. By the start of the 20th century eight out of ten Americans could not buy yellow margarine, and those that could had to pay a hefty tax on it. Bootleg colored margarine became common, and manufacturers began to supply food-coloring capsules so that the housewife could knead the yellow color into margarine before serving it. Nevertheless, the regulations and taxes had a significant effect: the 1902 restrictions on margarine colour, for example, cut U.S. consumption from 120 million to 48 million pounds (54,000 to 22,000 tons). However, by the end of the 1910s it had become more popular than ever.

With the coming of World War I, margarine consumption increased enormously, even in relatively lightly hit regions like the United States. In the countries closest to the fighting, dairy products became almost unobtainable and were strictly rationed. The United Kingdom, for example, depended on imported butter from Australia and New Zealand and the risk of submarine attack meant that little arrived. Margarine became the staple spread, and butter a rare and expensive luxury.

The long-running battle between the margarine industry and the dairy lobby continued: in the United States, the Great Depression brought a renewed wave of pro-dairy legislation; the Second World War, a swing back to margarine. Post-war, the consumer lobby gained power and, little by little, the main margarine restrictions were lifted, the last state to do so being Wisconsin in 1967. However, some vestiges of the legal restrictions remain in the U.S.: the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act still prohibits the retail sale of margarine in packages larger than one pound [1].

Margarine today

In the meantime, margarine manufacturers had made many changes. Modern margarine can be made from any of a wide variety of animal or vegetable fats, and is often mixed with skimmed milk, salt, and emulsifiers.

In terms of microstructure, margarine is a water-in-oil emulsion, containing dispersed water droplets of typically 5-10 µm diameter. The amount of crystallising fat in the continuous oil+fat phase determines the firmness of the product. In the relevant temperature range, saturated fats contribute most to the amount of crystalline fat, whereas mono-unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats contribute relatively little to the amount of crystalline fat in the product. Mono- and poly-unsaturated fats and oils can be transformed into suitable substrates by the chemical process of hydrogenation, which renders them solid at room temperature. Full hydrogenation results in saturated fats only, but partial hydrogenation will lead to the formation of trans-fats as well (see The Trans fat issue).

Three main types of margarine are common:

• Hard, generally uncoloured margarine for cooking or baking, which contains a high proportion of animal fat. (shortening)
• "Traditional" margarines for such uses as spreading on toast, which contain a relatively high percentage of saturated fats and are made from either animal or vegetable oils.
• Margarines high in mono- or poly-unsaturated fats, which are made from safflower, sunflower, soybean, cottonseed, or olive oil, and which are said to be healthier than butter or other types of margarine.

Many popular table spreads today are blends of margarine and butter — something that was long illegal in countries including the United States and Australia — and are designed to combine the lower cost and easy-spreading of artificial butter with the taste of the real thing.

Margarine, particularly polyunsaturated margarine, has become a major part of the Western diet. In the United States, for example, in 1930 the average person ate over 18 lb (8 Kg) of butter a year and just over 2 lb (900g) of margarine. By the end of the 20th century, an average American ate just under 4 lb (1.8 Kg) of butter and nearly 8 lb (3.6 Kg) of margarine.

Under European Union directives, margarine products cannot be called "butter", even if most of it consists of natural butter. In some European countries butter based table spreads and margarine products are marketed as "butter mixtures".

These "butter mixtures" comprise a significant portion of the table spread market. The forerunning product "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" spawned a variety of similarly-named spreads that can be found on supermarket shelves all over the world. With names like "Utterly Butterly," "You'd Butter Believe it," and "Butterlicious," these butter mixtures avoid the restrictions on labeling with marketing techniques that imply a strong similarity to real butter.

The United States imports 10 billion pounds (4.5 million tons) of margarine a year. Additionally, the United States exports 2 billion pounds (900,000 tons) of margarine annually.

Nutrition

The trans fat issue

Conventional margarine contains a much higher proportion of so-called trans fats than butter. Because research shows a correlation between diets high in trans fats and coronary heart disease, margarine has come to be perceived by many as unhealthy. Others argue that margarine remains healthier than butter, because butter's higher saturated fat content poses a greater hazard than margarine's trans fats. In response to trans fat concerns and government demands for labelling, margarine manufacturers are making and selling new varieties that contain less or no trans fat. In particular, tub margarine is sometimes lower in trans fat than stick margarine, but tub margarine is usually too soft to be suitable for baking.

Is margarine better for you?

Harvard University researchers, in a 1994 study, reported that people who consumed hydrogenated oils, which are contained in many brands of margarine, had nearly twice the risk of heart attacks as those who consumed little or no hydrogenated oils.

Several large studies, including the Nurses’ Health Study conducted by Harvard School of Public Health has indicated a strong link between earlier death and consumption of high amounts of trans-fat.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the American Heart Association (AHA) all have recommended people to limit intake of trans-fat. For this reason, margarine manufacturers have been reducing the amount of trans-fats in their products since the mid-nineties. The US federal government requires by 2006 the labelling of all food in such a way as to disclose amounts of trans-fat in products. Many brands label their products legally now as "zero grams" trans-fat, which in fact means less than 500 mg trans-fat per serving.

Butter versus margarine

The controversy over butter and margarine regarding which should be used as a spread or for cooking rests on how many cholesterol, saturated fats, and trans fatty acids each has.

Butterfat contains 2-5% trans fatty acids (mainly C18:1), and butter has high levels of cholesterol and saturated fat. The FDA states that healthy people should not consume more than 200mg of cholesterol each day and butter has 33mg of cholesterol in each tablespoon. A healthy range of saturated fat intake is 10-15g each day. One tablespoon contains over 7g of saturated fat. For this reason, some people recommend that you should limit butter in your diet. This formula is called into question when foods that are very low in saturated fat, yet high in cholesterol, like shrimp, are factored into the equation. Studies have shown that actual cholesterol consumption isn't the direct cause of high cholesterol, rather it is saturated fat consumption.

Vegetable shortenings do not contain any cholesterol and have only 3g of saturated fat per tablespoon. However, they are high in transfatty acids.

Margarine contains no cholesterol and has low levels of saturated fat, but some products have high trans fat levels. Stick margarine contains the most trans fat; tub or liquid margarine has about two-thirds less. Trans-fat-free varieties of margarine in a tub form are available.

External links

• American Heart Association article
• Hyfoma about margarine
• Nurses Health Study
• NAMM, the National Association of Margarine Manufacturers, an industry trade association.
• Never2early.org -- a web site about reducing the risks of heart disease at an early age.
• Online Article: "The Skinny on Fats" (includes information on health concerns connected with margarine and certain oils)