User:Conandcon/Margarine Mark-up

Margarine is a spread used for flavoring, baking, and cooking.

Modern margarine is made mainly of refined vegetable oil and water, and may also contain milk, salt or other flavoring agents, yellow food colorant and vitamins.

In some places in the United States, it is colloquially referred to as oleo, short for oleomargarine. In Britain it can be referred to colloquially as marge.

Margarine, like butter, consists of a water-in-fat emulsion, with tiny droplets of water dispersed uniformly throughout a fat phase in a stable crystalline form. In some jurisdictions, margarine must have a minimum fat content of 80% to be labelled as such, the same as butter. Colloquially in the United States, the term margarine is used to describe "non-dairy spreads" with varying fat contents. Colloquially in the United States, the term margarine is used to describe "non-dairy spreads" with varying fat contents.

Due to its versatility, margarine can be used as an ingredient in other food products, such as pastries, doughnuts, and cookies.

History
Margarine originated with the discovery by French chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul in 1813 of margaric acid (itself named after the pearly deposits of the fatty acid from Greek μαργαρίτης or μάργαρον (margaritēs / márgaron), meaning pearl-oyster or pearl, or μαργαρίς (margarís), meaning palm-tree, hence the relevance to palmitic acid). Scientists at the time regarded margaric acid, like oleic acid and stearic acid, as one of the three fatty acids that, in combination, form most animal fats. In 1853, the German structural chemist Wilhelm Heinrich Heintz analyzed margaric acid as simply a combination of stearic acid and the previously unknown palmitic acid.



In the United States John Steele wrote in his 1850 California gold miner's journal: "I became acquainted with Mr. Daniels, from Baltimore, who... manufactured butter from tallow and lard, and it looked and tasted so much like real butter, that... I could not tell the difference. However, he deceived no one, but sold it for just what it was. He never explained the process of its manufacture, and whether he was the originator of oleomargarine I do not know."

In 1867, French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès, a student of Michel Eugène Chevreul, observed that starved cows were still producing fat despite losing weight and producing less milk. He concluded that butter fat must be derived from beef tallow. Mège-Mouriès started experimenting pressing beef tallow at 30 to 40 degrees Celsius. From this he obtained what became known as oleomargarine.

In 1869, Emperor Napoleon III of France offered a prize to anyone who could make a satisfactory butter alternative as butter became scarce and more expensive due to a large population increase in the 19th century as well as French wars across Europe. Also, political tensions with Prussia rose, which increased the need to find a way to feed the troops. By that time Mège-Mouriès had produced a spread made from beef tallow. He received the price for his oleomargarine, which became shortened to the trade name margarine.

Mège-Mouriès patented the concept in 1869 and installed a manufacturing operation in Poissy, France, which did not develop until after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. In 1872, regulation allowing the sale of margarine was passed in France and Mège-Mouriès started a large-scale production in 1873.

Before, in 1871, he had sold the knowledge of the process for 60,000 francs to the Dutch company Jurgens in the absence of a patent law in the Netherlands. Subsequently, Jurgens established a margarine factory in Oss, Netherlands. The company Van den Bergh, also headquartered in Oss, started production in the same year. Both companies became later part of Unilever.

Also in 1871, a German pharmacist, Benedict Klein from Cologne, founded the first margarine factory "Benedict Klein Margarinewerke", producing the brands Overstolz and Botteram.

In the United States Henry W. Bradley of Binghamton, New York received U.S. Patent 110,626 in 1871 for a process of creating margarine that combined vegetable oils (primarily cottonseed oil) with animal fats.

In Austria the first factory started producing margarine in 1873 in Liesing, a district of Vienna. In Denmark, Otto Mønsted, started producing margarine in 1883. All the margarine consumed in the United Kingdom was imported until Mønsted established production in Manchester in 1889. The first production in the United States began between 1874 and 1876 by the Oleo Margarine-Facturing Company.

While butter that cows produced had a slightly yellow color, margarine had a white color, making the margarine look more like lard, which many people found unappetizing. Around the late 1880s, the manufacturers began coloring the margarine yellow to improve sales.

By 1900, production had expanded around the world with around 300,000 tons of production in Western Europe, 50,000 tons in the United States, 20,000 tons in Russia and another 20,000 in total in other countries per year.

Producing in opposition to the butter industry, which protested and lobbied for government intervention, eventually led to regulation of the industry in different countries. In 1886, the Margarine Act was introduced in the United States imposing tax and licensing fees against margarine manufacturers. In the same year, Canada prohibited Margarine. By 1900, 32 US states had also passed legislation to prohibit the yellow coloring of Margarine, with Vermont (1884), New Hampshire and West Virginia (1891) requiring the product to be pink. In response, the margarine companies distributed the margarine together with a packet of food coloring. Many European countries passed laws many requiring the product to be called “Margarine” instead labeling it Butter or for example Butterine in The Netherlands or the United Kingdom or in other instances – for example in Denmark – prohibiting mixing margarine with butter.

Due to the high demand for margarine, the demand for beef tallow exceeded production limits. In addition, coconut oil as an alternative was also not available enough and it was expensive. These limits were solved when Wilhelm Normann patented the hydrogenation of liquid oils at the beginning of the 20th century building up on investigations by Paul Sabatier. Thereafter, commercial oleomargarine was produced from a combination of animal fats and hardened and unhardened vegetable oils.

In 1927, manufacturers in the United Kingdom started fortifying margarine with Vitamins extracted from liver oils.

The depression of the 1930s, followed by the rationing of World War II, led to a reduction in supply of animal fat and butter, and, by 1945, "original" margarine produced from animal fat almost completely disappeared from the market. In the United States, problems with supply, coupled with changes in legislation, caused manufacturers to switch almost completely to vegetable oils and fats (oleomargarine) by 1950, and the industry was ready for an era of product development.

In Canada legislation was changed in 1948 and the first production in the country started in 1949. By 1950 world production totaled around 2 million tons with the United States (418,000 tons), United Kingdom (374,000 tons) and Germany (358,000 tons) being the largest producers.

Development since 1950


In 1951, the W.E. Dennison Company received U.S. Patent 2,553,513 for a method to place a capsule of yellow dye inside a plastic package of margarine. After purchase, the capsule was broken inside the package, and then the package was kneaded to distribute the dye. Around 1955, the artificial coloring laws in the United States were repealed, and margarine could for the first time be sold colored like butter.

During WWII rationing, only two types of margarine were available in the UK, a premium brand and a cheaper budget brand. With the end of rationing in 1955, the market was opened to the forces of supply and demand, and brand marketing became prevalent. The competition between the major producers was given further impetus with the beginning of commercial television advertising in 1955 and, throughout the 1950s and 1960s, competing companies vied with each other to produce the margarine that tasted most like butter.

Production of margarine has changed significantly since the 1960s, mainly because of large shifts in consumer lifestyles and concerns with health, food safety and a balanced diet. Industry introduced a heart health margarine with high polyunsaturated fatty acids as well as products with low calorie or half fat.

The introduction of two lower-fat blends of butter oil and vegetable oils in Scandinavia, called Lätt & Lagom and Bregott, clouded the issue of what should be called "margarine" and began the debate that led to the introduction of the term "spread".In 1978, an 80 percent fat product called krona, made by churning a blend of dairy cream and vegetable oils, was introduced in Europe and, in 1982, a blend of cream and vegetable oils called clover was introduced in the UK by the Milk Marketing Board. The vegetable oil and cream spread I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! was introduced into the United States in 1981, and in the United Kingdom and Canada in 1991.

The 1980s also saw a decrease of fat levels in most brands as well as the ubiquitous lower fat spreads with 60 percent fat or lower. In the late 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s 20 percent and almost zero fat spreads were marketed. By the end of the 20th century the first cholesterol-lowering yellow fat was introduced in Finland with sterol/stanol added.

Development since 2000


In the early 21st century manufacturers provided liquid margarines in plastic squeeze bottles to ease dispensing and offered pink margarine as a novelty. By 2000, the first organic spreads were introduced in the United Kingdom and Sweden. The use of partially hydrogenated oils has been phased out because they were found to be a source of trans fat and many refrigerator-stable spreads containing lower fat and fewer calories than traditional spreads were introduced. Other varieties of spreads have been introduced and include spreads with added fish oil (EPA and DHA), spreads with low or no salt, spreads with olive oil and spreads with added plant sterols that are said to lower blood cholesterol. Some fat spreads have removed or replaced all animal ingredients and became 100 percent plant based.

Manufacturing process


Margarine can physically be described as a crystallized emulsion, where the solid fat in the fat phase of the product is present as crystals. These function to hold the milky water phase, which is divided as fine product through the product.

For the fat phase, manufacturers normally take a blend of vegetable oils and fats. Depending on the kind of margarine the fats for the blend differ as the texture, plasticity or the melting-point of the margarine are determined by the fat types used. Conventionally, manufacturers use a blend of liquid oils and harder fats. The harder fats can be sourced from the natural fats, which are solid at normal temperatures, e.g. coconut oil, or via hydrogenation of oils. Recently, the use of hydrogenated oils was largely reduced or eliminated. The naturally solid fats can be further modified by fractionation or interesterification in order to influence the resulting texture, plasticity, melting-point or the taste of the margarine.

The fat phase is often resulting from mixing the various fats in a tank one after each other. The tank is equipped with load-cells to determine the content by weight. Simultaneously, the fats are being preliminary mixed with an agitator.

For the milky aqueous phase manufacturers can use sterilized water, fermented milk or solutions that reconstitute the milk. The fermentation process adds flavors to the product and proteins from milk to margarine causing the brown precipitate when used for frying, which is liked by the consumer as it adds flavor to the product prepared with the margarine. Different kinds of milk can be used with skimmed milk being the most common. In addition, often emulsifiers are used for a favorable outcome of the margarine emulsion.

In the next manufacturing step, the fat phase and the aqueous phase are brought together. Usually the aqueous phase comes at around 10 degrees Celsius whereas the fat blend should not have more than 50 degrees Celsius. Both are mixed in vertical vessels. Afterwards, the mixture is cooled down below the crystallization point for the emulsion to set as fast as possible. Other ingredients such as salt, vitamins, flavoring or coloring may also be added in this step. The result is a water-in-oil emulsion.

In order to increase plasticity, the solid to liquid ratio of the emulsion is reduced after cooling by working the margarine. Commonly this is done in pin-stirrers. The solidified emulsion is then compacted and kneaded for its final consistency.

For the packaging of margarine – as for other fats – it is important to protect the product from outside influences such as oxygen, light, bacteria or others in order to keep its texture and quality. Therefore, usually plastic containers, papers combined with plastics or aluminum foils are used for the packaging process.

Nutrition


Margarines and other (plant-based) fat spreads are made with vegetable oils, such as sunflower-, canola-, linseed-, and palm oil. Due to the vegetable oils, margarine has high levels of unsaturated fats and is, relative to butter, low in saturated fats. Margarine naturally contains vitamin E, and may also contain added vitamin A and vitamin D.



The World Health Organization and national food based dietary guidelines, such as from the United States Department of Agriculture, UK government , Netherlands government recommend replacing dietary saturated fats with unsaturated fats because of the health benefits.



Amount of fat
Typically, a margarine contains 80% fat, however, due to technological developments since the 1950s the fat content of margarine or (plant-based) fat spreads normally ranges from 20 to 80% fat.



Saturated fat
The carbon-to-carbon bonds in the fatty acid hydrocarbon chains of saturated fats are single bonds.



Vegetable oils and fats can contain from 5 to 90% saturated fat.



Liquid oils (canola/rapeseed oil, sunflower oil) tend to be lower in saturated fats than tropical oils (coconut oil, palm kernel oil), and fully hardened (hydrogenated) oils tend to be very high in saturated fats. Margarines are mainly made with liquid oils, and contain some tropical oils to obtain a spreadable texture.



Typical soft tub margarine contains 10% to 20% of saturated fat and firmer margarines about 30-35% saturated fat. Animal fats are often higher in saturated fats e.g. butterfat contains 52 to 65% saturated fats.



Many (health) authorities, such as the World Health Organisation, American Heart Association and the European Food Safety Authority advise that saturated fat should be replaced with unsaturated fats, especially polyunsaturated fats in the diet and the total intake of saturated fat should not exceed 10% of energy intake (equal to 27.8g saturated fatty acids for an adult male).



Replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats is more effective in preventing coronary heart disease than reducing overall fat intake.





Unsaturated fats
An unsaturated fat is a fat in which there is at least one carbon-to-carbon double bond within the fatty acid chain. A fatty acid chain is monounsaturated if it contains one double bond, and polyunsaturated if it contains more than one double bond.



Consumption of unsaturated fats has been found to decrease LDL-cholesterol levels and increase HDL-cholesterol levels in the blood, thus reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are recognized as beneficial to health in contrast to saturated fats. A study released in 2018 indicates that replacing saturated fats, refined carbohydrates or trans fat with monounsaturated fats from plant sources significantly reduces coronary heart disease risk, while replacement by monounsaturated fats from animal sources showed no benefit.



Some vegetable oils, such as rapeseed (and its variant canola), sunflower, safflower, and olive oils contain high amounts of unsaturated fats. When manufacturing margarine or (plant-based) fat spreads, vegetable oils rich in unsaturated fats, are mixed with a small amount of hard fat rich in saturated fat to give the margarine spread a firm and spreadable texture.




 * Omega-3 fatty acids Alpha-Linolenic acid is part of the omega-3 fatty acid family and is an essential fat. So called because the human body cannot make it and it is therefore essential to eat foods that contain it. Seed oils are the richest sources of alpha-linolenic acid, notably those of hempseed, chia, linseed oil, rapeseed (canola), and soybeans. Linseed oil contains 30-50% of alpha-linolenic acid, and is becoming a popular dietary supplement to rival fish oils; both are often added to margarines. Marine omega-3 fats (eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid) are mostly obtained from oily fish. Margarines mainly contain omega-3 from plant oils (alpha-linolenic acid), however, few margarines contain marine omega-3.



The World Health Organisation advises that 0.5 to 2% of the daily energy intake comes from omega-3 fats, with at least 0.5% of energy from alpha-linolenic acid and 250 to 2000 mg per day from eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid. Actual intake of omega-3 is lower than recommended for many populations.




 * Omega-6 fatty acids Omega-6 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fats and are also important for health. They include the essential fatty acid linoleic acid. The WHO recommends that 2,5 to 9% of energy to come from linoleic acid. Linoleic acid is abundant in vegetable oils grown in temperate climates. Some, such as hemp (60%) and the common margarine oils corn (60%) and sunflower (50%), have large amounts, but most temperate oil seeds have over 10% linoleic acid. In general, modern Western diets are sufficient in omega-6 linoleic acid, but the intake of omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid is sub-optimal.



Trans fat
Trans fats in the diet can be obtained from industrial or natural sources. Industrial trans fats are formed by partial hydrogenation of unsaturated fats in edible oils. Alternatively, trans fat from natural sources are formed by bacterial transformation of unsaturated fats in the rumen of ruminants.



Consumption of high amounts of trans fat have been linked to the development of coronary heart disease prompting a number of government health agencies, such as WHO, European Food Safety Authority , National Academy of Medicine and U.S. Department of Agriculture to recommend that the intake of total trans fats from all sources to be as low as possible, and/or to less than 1% of energy intake which is equal to a maximum of 2.2g per day. Both trans fat from industrial and ruminant sources have a similar negative effect on cholesterol.

Following studies in the mid-1990’s that showed the negative health effects of trans fat, many food industries eliminated the use of partially hydrogenated oils. Nowadays most margarines and fat spreads contain virtually no trans fat.



Many countries have launched initiatives to lower trans fat intake. For example, the United States Food and Drug Administration ordered that trans fat is to be eliminated from food processing after a three-year grace period, which began in June 2015 and ended at June 18, 2018. These activities have been effective; time trend data from 20 countries shows substantial declines in industrial trans fat intake since 1995 such that in many countries most trans fat in the diet comes from animal sources.



Cholesterol
A high intake of saturated and/or trans fat is linked to elevated blood cholesterol levels. Overall intake of cholesterol from food has a minor effect on blood cholesterol levels in comparison. Most margarines are plant-based and contain no cholesterol.



Plant sterol esters and stanol esters
Plant sterol esters or plant stanol esters have been added to margarines and spreads because of their cholesterol-lowering effect. More than 120 good quality human intervention studies have shown the cholesterol-lowering efficacy of plant sterols and/or stanols.



Consuming 2g of plant sterols a day reduces the absorption of cholesterol by 30-40%. Plant sterols and plant stanols have a similar dose-dependent cholesterol-lowering effect, which continues to increase to an average effect of 12% LDL-cholesterol reduction for intakes of up to approximately 3g/day.



Market acceptance


Margarine, particularly polyunsaturated margarine, has become a major part of the Western diet and had overtaken butter in popularity in the mid-20th century. In the United States, for example, in 1930, the average person ate over 18 lb of butter a year and just over 2 lb of margarine. By the end of the 20th century, an average American ate around 5 lb of butter and nearly 8 lb of margarine.

Margarine has a particular market value to those who observe the Jewish dietary laws of Kashrut, which forbids the mixing of meat and dairy products; hence there are strictly kosher non-dairy margarines available. These are often used by the kosher-observant consumer to adapt recipes that use meat and butter or in baked goods served with meat meals. The 2008 Passover margarine shortage in America caused much consternation within the kosher-observant community.

Regular margarine contains trace amounts of animal products such as whey or dairy casein extracts. However, margarine that strictly does not contain animal products also exists. Such margarines provide a vegan substitute for butter.

Australia
Margarine is common in Australian supermarkets. Sales of the product have decreased in recent years due to consumers "reducing their use of spreads in their daily diet". Butter-colored margarine was sold from its introduction in Australia, but dairy and associated industries lobbied governments strongly in a (vain) attempt to have them change its color, or banned altogether.

Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code – Standard 2.4.2 – Edible Oil Spreads requires that edible oil spreads and table margarine must contain no less than 55 μg/kg of vitamin D.

Canada
Canadian standard B.09.016 states that margarine shall be: "An emulsion of fat, or water in fat, oil, or fat and oil that are not derived from milk and shall contain not less than 80% fat and not less than 3300 IU of vitamin A and 530 IU of vitamin D." Calorie reduced margarine is specified in standard B.09.017 as: "Containing not less than 40% fat and having 50% of the calories normally present in margarine."

In 2007, Health Canada released an updated version of the Canada's Food Guide that recommended Canadians choose "soft" margarine spreads that are low in saturated and trans fats and limit traditional "hard" margarines, butter, lard, and shortening in their diets.

European Union
Under European Union directives, margarine is defined as: "A water-in-oil emulsion derived from vegetable/animal fats, with a fat content of at least 10% but less than 90%, that remain solid at a temperature of 20°C and are suitable as spread." Margarines may not have a milk fat content of more than 3%. For blends and blended spreads, the milk fat may be between 10% and 80%.

Spread that contains 60 to 62% of fat may be called "three-quarter-fat margarine" or "reduced-fat margarine". Spread that contains 39 to 41% of fat may be called "half-fat margarine", "low-fat margarine", or "light margarine". Spreads with any other percentage of fat are called "fat spread" or "light spread".

Many member states currently require the mandatory addition of vitamins A and D to margarine and fat spreads for reasons of public health. Voluntary fortification of margarine with vitamins had been practiced by manufacturers since 1925, but in 1940 with the advent of the war, certain governments took action to safeguard the nutritional status of their nations by making the addition of vitamin A and D compulsory. This mandatory fortification was justified in the view that margarine was being used to replace butter in the diet.

United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, no brands of spread on sale contain partially hydrogenated oils. Fortification with vitamins A and D is no longer mandatory for margarine, this brings it in line with other spreads wherein fortification is not required.

Legal issues


Since margarine intrinsically appears white or almost white, by preventing the addition of artificial coloring agents, legislators found they could protect the dairy industries by discouraging the consumption of margarine based on visual appeal. If margarine were colored the same as butter, consumers would see it as being virtually the same thing as butter, and as a natural product. Bans on adding color became commonplace in the United States, Canada, and Denmark and, in some cases, those bans endured for almost 100 years. The rivalry between the dairy industry and the oleomargarine industry persists even today.

Canada
In Canada, margarine was prohibited from 1886 to 1948, though this ban was temporarily lifted from 1917 until 1923 due to dairy shortages. Nevertheless, bootleg margarine was produced in the neighboring Dominion of Newfoundland from whale, seal, and fish oil by the Newfoundland Butter Company and was smuggled to Canada where it was widely sold for half the price of butter. The Supreme Court of Canada lifted the margarine ban in 1948 in the Margarine Reference. That year, Newfoundland negotiated its entry into the Canadian Confederation, and one of its three non-negotiable conditions for union with Canada was a constitutional protection for the new province's right to manufacture margarine.

In 1950, as a result of a court ruling giving provinces the right to regulate the product, rules were implemented in much of Canada regarding margarine's color, requiring that it be bright yellow or orange in some provinces or colorless in others. By the 1980s, most provinces had lifted the restriction. However, in Ontario it was not legal to sell butter-colored margarine until 1995. Quebec, the last Canadian province to regulate margarine coloring, repealed its law requiring margarine to be colorless in July 2008.

United States
In 1877, New York became the first U.S. state to attempt legal restriction of the sale of oleomargarine through compulsory labeling. The law, "to prevent deception in sales of butter," required retailers to provide customers with a slip of paper that identified the "imitation" product as margarine. This law proved ineffective, as it would have required an army of inspectors and chemists to enforce it. By the mid-1880s, the U.S. federal government had introduced a tax of two cents per pound, and manufacturers needed an expensive license to make or sell the product. The simple expedient of requiring oleo manufacturers to color their product distinctively was, however, left out of early federal legislation. But individual states began to require the clear labeling of margarine. The color bans, drafted by the butter lobby, began in the dairy states of New York and New Jersey. In several states, legislatures enacted laws to require margarine manufacturers to add pink colorings to make the product look unpalatable, despite the objections of the oleo manufacturers that butter dairies themselves added annatto to their product to imitate the yellow of mid-summer butter.

By the start of the 20th century, eight out of ten Americans could not buy yellow margarine, and those who could had to pay a hefty tax on it. Bootleg colored margarine became common, and manufacturers began to supply food-coloring capsules so the consumer could knead the yellow color into margarine before serving it. Nevertheless, the regulations and taxes had a significant effect: the 1902 restrictions on margarine color, for example, cut annual consumption in the United States from 120000000 to 48000000 lb.

With the coming of World War I, margarine consumption increased enormously, even in countries away from the front, such as 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 attacks meant little arrived.

The long-running battle between the margarine and dairy lobbies 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 margarine lobby gained power and, little by little, the main margarine restrictions were lifted, the most recent states to do so being Minnesota in 1963 and Wisconsin in 1967. Lois Dowdle Cobb (1889–1987) of Atlanta, wife of the agricultural publisher Cully Cobb, led the move in the United States to lift the restrictions on margarine. Some unenforced laws remain on the books.

Commercial oils

 * Canola oil
 * Coconut oil
 * Colza oil
 * Corn oil
 * Olive oil
 * Palm oil
 * Soybean oil
 * Sunflower oil