Margarine

Margarine in a tub

Margarine is an emulsified, fatty food product originally created as a substitute for butter. As an emulsion, margarine is a mixture of two immiscible (unblendable substances), involving a continuous liquid phase of fat surrounding droplets of water as the dispersed phase (water-in-oil emulsion). It is generally mixed with vitamins, coloring agents, emulsifiers, anti-spattering agents, flavorants, preservatives, and other ingredients in order to have nutritional value and similar taste and appearance as butter (Herbst 2001; Bender and Bender 2005). In the United States, a standard margarine product must contain at least eighty percent edible vegetable or animal fat (Herbst 2001). However, margarine sometimes is used as a generic term for any of a wide range of butter substitutes, including fat-free and low-fat spreads.

In some regions of the world, people may refer to margarine as butter in informal speech, but (at least in the United States and the European Community) laws forbid food packaging to refer to margarine as "butter." Recipes sometimes refer to margarine as oleo or as shortening.

The development of margarine, with its similar taste, appearance, and nutritional value as butter (produced from churned milk and cream), reflects on human creativity. This creativity furthermore has resulted in a wide variety of types of margarine, including soft margarine, whipped margarine, liquid margarine, butter-margarine blends, and even cholesterol-lowering margarine. The hydrogenation process utilized in producing margarine, however, has raised some health concerns for those types of margarine in which this chemical transformation results in high trans fat concentrations.

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.

Description

Margarine is a water-in-oil emulsion, as is butter. Originally, the manufacturing process utilized oleo oil from beef fat emulsified with water or milk. 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. Margarine made from vegetable oils is especially important in today's market, as it provides a substitute for butter that is both vegan and pareve. Common sources for the vegetable oils are from maize, coconut oil, olive oil, cottonseed, and soybean oil. Nearly all margarine is salted, which makes shortening (which contains no salt) a better choice for baking.

Other ingredients commonly added to margarine include vitamin A, vitamin D, nutritive carbohydrate sweeteners, anti-spattering agents, preservatives, antioxidants, edible colorants, acidulants, alkalizers, flavorants, and sometimes vitamin E (Katz and Weaver 2003; Bender and Bender 2005). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States established a standard of identity for margarine to be a product that contains at least eighty percent edible animal or vegetable fat; water, milk, or milk products; vitamin A; and suitable edible protein (Katz and Weaver 2003).

In terms of microstructure, margarine contains dispersed water droplets of typically 5-10 µm diameter. The amount of crystallizing 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 monounsaturated 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, crystalline substrates by the chemical process of hydrogenation, rendering the product solid at room temperature.

The process of chemical transformation known as hydrogenation (indicated as "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" oils on a label), which is required for margarine to become solid, involves pumping extra hydrogen atoms into unsaturated fat (Herbst 2001). Full hydrogenation results in saturated fats only, but partial hydrogenation will lead to the formation of trans-fats as well. Both cis and trans double bonds are provided by the hydrogenation process, whereas most vegetable oils are in the cis configuration (Katz and Weaver 2003).

Types of margarine

Three main types of margarine are common:

• Hard, generally uncolored margarine for cooking or baking. (Shortening)
• "Traditional" margarines for such uses as spreading on toast, which contain saturated fats, are mostly made from 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 other types of margarines are available. There are cholesterol-lowering margarines, which entered the market in 1999, and are said to lower cholesterol levels in the blood (Herbst 2001). These contain no hydrogenated trans fatty acids and are made with plant-derived compounds that are said to obstruct cholesterol absorption (Herbst 2001). There also is whipped margarine (which has air beaten into it, making it fluffy), soft margarine (made from all vegetable oils and spreadable when cold), and liquid margarine (soft enough to squeeze from a bottle), as well as reduced-fat margarines and fat-free margarines (Herbst 2001).

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.

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 brand "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.

History

Margarine was invented in 1869 by French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriés. It came in response to the offer of a prize by Emperor Louis Napoleon III of France to anyone who could make a satisfactory substitute for butter, suitable for use by the armed forces and the lower classes (Wolfe 2000). At the time there was a desire to find an inexpensive and stable alternative for the then scarce and expensive butter (Herbst 2001). Mège-Mouriés invented a substance he called oleomargarine, the name of which became shortened to the trade name "margarine." The manufacturing process involved oleo oil, from beef tallow, being churned at 25 to 30 degrees centigrade with water or milk. Later, other animal fats and vegetable oils were substituted in the process.

Katz and Weaver (2003) report that Mège-Mouriés used the name margarine after the Greek word for "pearl-like," reflecting that the product had a pearly luster. Another source for the name is said to originate with the 1813 discovery by Michel Eugène Chevreul of "margaric acid." 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 structural chemist Wilhelm Heinrich Heintz analyzed margaric acid as simply a combination of stearic acid and of the previously unknown palmitic acid. The name margaric acid was named after pearly deposits of the fatty acid from Greek margaron, meaning "a pearl-oyster" or "a pearl."

Manufacturers produced oleomargarine by taking clarified vegetable 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 World 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 vigor. As early as 1877, the first U.S. states had passed laws to restrict the sale and labeling 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. Individual states began to require the clear labeling 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 coloring-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 and as of 2005 it was still illegal to sell margarine with coloring in Quebec, Canada (CBC 2005).

Margarine in the United States

In the United States, the color bans 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 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 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 unscathed 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 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 last state to do so being Wisconsin in 1967.

Current consumption

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.

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.

Margarine has a particular market to Orthodox Jews. The laws of Kashrut (the Jewish dietary laws) forbid the mixing of meat and dairy products, and hence there are strictly Kosher margarines available, which are often used by Jews adapting recipes that use meat and butter to be Kosher.

Nutrition

Discussions concerning the nutritional value of margarine revolve around two aspects: the total amount of fat, and the types of fat (saturated fat, trans fat). A complicating factor is the historic link in the United States between amounts of saturated fat and trans fat due to the very limited number of vegetable oil sources used there (esp. soy bean oil), but not in most other parts of the world. Usually, a comparison between margarine and butter is included in this context as well.

Amount of fat

Fat consumption in the Western world is quite high. Traditional margarine (~80% fat) contributes to this, but is not the main factor causing over-consumption. Low-fat spreads could serve as an alternative, and are widely available.

The roles of butter and margarine are quite similar with respect to their energy content.

Saturated fat

The saturated fatty acids in triglycerides contribute to elevated blood cholesterol levels (Keys et al. 1965; Mensink et al. 2003), which in turn has often been linked to cadiovascular diseases.

Vegetable fats can contain anything between 10% and 100% saturated fatty acids. Liquid oils tend to be on the low end (unhardened canola oil, soy bean oil, etc.), fully hardened oils are at the high end of the scale. A margarine blend is a mixture of both types of components, and will rarely exceed 50% saturated fatty acids on fat. Exceptions are some traditional kitchen margarines or products that have to maintain stability under tropical conditions (de Bruijne and Bot 1999). Generally, firmer margarines contain more saturated fat.

Regular butterfat contains ~65% saturated fatty acids, although this varies somewhat with season. One tablespoon of butter contains over 7 grams of saturated fat.

Trans fat

Several large studies have suggested a link between earlier death and consumption of high amounts of trans fat (Willett et al. 1993; Hu et al. 1997; Hayakawa et al. 2000). 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.

While trans double bonds are not unknown in nature, occurring in some animal fats and many plant fats, the double bonds in most vegetable oils are in the cis configuration (Katz and Weaver 2003). Partial hydrogenation causes migration of the double bonds of vegetable oils and results in both cis and trans double bonds (Katz and Weaver 2003). Unlike cis double bonds, where the hydrogen atoms attached to the carbons that form the double bond are on the same side of the carbon chain (allowing the molecule to bend at the double bond), in trans double bonds the hydrogen atoms are on opposite sides of the carbon chain and the molecule has a more linear configuration, like that of a saturated fatty acid (Katz and Weaver 2003). Full hydrogenation does not generate trans fats, but only fully saturated fats.

Particularly in the United States, partial hydrogenation has been common as a result of the dependence on a very limited number of vegetable oil sources. In other parts of the world, the industry started to move away from using partially hydrogenated oils since the mid-nineties (Flöter and van Duijn 2006), and produce new margarine varieties that contain less or no trans fat (van Duijn 2005). Many manufacturers in the United States now label their products according to government regulations as "zero grams" trans-fat, which effectively means less than 500 mg trans-fat per serving.

Butterfat contains 2-5% trans fatty acids (mainly C18:1w7) (Anand et al. 2004).

Cholesterol

Dietary intake of cholesterol itself is not the key factor influencing levels of cholesterol in the blood, due to regulatory mechanisms; rather the key dietary factor is consumption of saturated fats. This is because a higher intake of cholesterol from food leads to a net decrease in endogenous production, while lower intake from food has the opposite effect. Nonetheless, the FDA states that healthy people should not consume more than 200 mg of cholesterol each day, and butter contains approximately 33 mg of cholesterol in each tablespoon. Margarine contains no cholesterol. However, the human body transforms saturated fat into cholesterol.

References

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• Anand, P. S., C. A. Avramis, J. K. G. Kramer, and A. G. Marangoni. 2004. Algal meal supplementation of the cows' diet alters the physical properties of milk fat. J. Dairy Res. 71, 66-73.

• Bender, D. A., and A. E. Bender. 2005. A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198609612.

• Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 2005. Canada's conflicted relationship with margarine. CBC News Online March 18, 2005. Retrieved September 23, 2007.

• de Bruijne, D. W., and A. Bot. 1999. Fabricated fat-based foods. Pages 185-227 in A. J. Rosenthal, Food Texture: Measurement and Perception. Gaithersburg: Aspen. ISBN 1591248124.

• Flöter, E., and G. van Duijn. 2006. Trans-free fats for use in foods. Pages 429-443 in F. D. Gunstone, Modifying Lipids for use in Foods. Cambridge, UK: Woodhead. ISBN 1855739712.

• Hayakawa, K., Y. Y. Linko, and P. Linko. 2000. The role of trans fatty acids in human nutrition,. Journal of Lipid Science and Technology 102: 419-425.

• Herbst, S. T. 2001. The New Food Lover's Companion: Comprehensive Definitions of Nearly 6,000 Food, Drink, and Culinary Terms. Barron's Cooking Guide. Hauppauge, NY: Barron's Educational Series. ISBN 0764112589

• Hu, F. B., M. J. Stampfer, J. E. Manson, E. Rimm, G. A. Colditz, B. A. Rosner, C. H. Hennekens, and W. C. Willett. 1997. Dietary fat intake and the risk of coronary heart disease in women. New England Journal of Medicine 337: 1491-1499. Retrieved September 23, 2007.

• Katz, S. H., and W. W. Weaver. 2003. Encyclopedia of Food and Culture. New York: Schribner. ISBN 0684805685

• Keys, A., J. T. Anderson, and F. Grande. 1965. Serum cholesterol response to changes in the diet. IV. Particular fatty acids in the diet. Metabolism 14: 776-787.

• Mensink, R. P., P. L. Zock, A. D. M. Kester, and M. B. Katan. 2003. Effects of dietary fatty acids and carbohydrates on the ratio of serum total to HDL cholesterol and on serum lipids and apolipoproteins: A meta-analysis of 60 controlled studies. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 77: 1146-1155.

• van Duijn, G. 2005. Technical aspects of trans reduction in modified fats, Oléagineux, Corps Gras. Lipides 12: 422-426. .

• Willett, W. C., M. J. Stampfer, J. E. Mason, G. A. Colditz, F. E. Speizer, B. A. Rosner, L. A. Sampson, and C. H. Hennekes. 1993. Intake of trans fatty acids and risk of coronary heart disease among women. Lancet 341: 581-585.

• Wolfe, E. 2000. Sciencepower 9: Science, Technology, Society, Environment. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson. ISBN 0075609053.

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