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KNOW YOUR FOODS. I. OLEOMARGARINE* H. A. SCH~ETTE, U~mnsrruor WISCONSIN, MADISON. WISCONSIN
There is no food, be it raw or manufactured, that passes over the grocer's counter but has its history. The thought that, peculiar to every food, there are some facts not only of historical but of scientific interest as well, which, if translated into the vernacular, will arrest attention, has prompted us to prepare a series of discussions in the hope that we may accomplish what we have expressed in a somewhat mandatory fashion to the end that we may bring to light information not generally known. Perhaps we should admonish you to know your groceries, if you know what we mean. The last war gave rise to a rather descriptive expression in the industries -"war baby." Not many of the infant industries which are created by the exigencies of war survive, yet there is one which, born in a period of na. tional stress, has lived to date some fifty-five years. Its product, oleomargarine, forms the subject of this discussion. Let us go back and follow through the history of oleomargarine manufacture. A French chemist, M&ge Mouries, shortly before the FrancoPrussian War, was conducting experiments in the hope of finding a formula that would give to the world in some palatable form a satisfactory substitute for butter. Napoleon I11 had offered a prize to stimulate the search for an article of food which would be cheaper and have better keeping qualities than butter, and which could be used as a substitute for butter. The prize for this discovery was awarded in 1870 to M&geMouries. A somewhat colorful circumstance with which some surround the birth of oleomargarine is that Paris lay under siege by the Germans, its supply of butter was completely shut off, and as a result a prize was offered to any one who would first produce a fat that could be used by the inhabitants of the beleagured city in place of butter. From other sources we learn that its manufacture was suspended with the outbreak of the war in 1870. Be that as it may, however, it is probably not incorrect to say that oleomargarine was conceived during, or at about the time of, a national crisis and therefore, in popular parlance, lays some claim to having been a "war baby." Mege Mouries sought the solution of the problem in the substitution of an artificial for the natural process as he pictured it taking place in the cow, for he had found by experiment that a cow although restricted in her food to the point where she was losing weight still gave milk containing butter fat. He inferred from this observation that the source of this butter fat was her body fat which by metamorphosis had been secreted as such. From beef he obtained a fat, it is said, "which melted at almost the * A ledure by radiophone broadcast from Station WHA, University of Wisconsin. February 15,1928.
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exact temperature of butter, possessed a sweet and agreeable taste, and which for most purposes could replace ordinary butter, not, of course, the finest kinds, but which was superior t o it in possessing the advantageous peculiarity of keeping for a long time without becoming rancid."' He
believed i t necessary to add in the rendering of the raw fats ferments contained in the gastric juices of a pig, a calf, or a sheep in order to develop those "sweet and agreeable tastes" which he claimed for his product. Later developments in manufacture indicated that this practice was quite IJ. S Dept. Agric., Dim. Chen.B d L , 13, 9 (1887).
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unnecessary. Letters patent 146,012 for the manufacture of his butter substitute were granted him in the United States on December 30, 1873. His patent possesses at this time only historic value because later developments have rendered practically obsolete his original process of manufacture. Thus was born, for very innocent reasons, a new industry whose product unfortunately soon entered into unfair competition with genuine butter. "Dutch butter," "butterine," etc., were names given to this article of food but their use was eventually suppressed by law. Because of the fraudulent sale of this food at times special laws were enacted to govern its manufacture and sale. The former was really a disguised blessing, for the manufacturers of modem oleomargarine now point, we believe, with some pride, to the fact that no article of food is so completely supervised and controlled by the Federal Government as oleomargarine, for no ingredient of oleomargarine that contains animal fat escapes this detailed supervision. I t begins with the raw material and extends through to the labeling of the finished product. There is but little differencein the degree of digestibility and the energy of the common edible fats. Although fats have very little if any flavor yet it can be imparted to them to a certain degree. Science has demonstrated how liquid fats can be easily changed into soft or into hard fats. The manufacturer of oleomargarine renders his service to humanity in that he in a sense increases the supply of fatty foods by utilizing the less expensive yet valuable food fats, making them more palatable, and changing them from an inconvenient liquid form to one of a soft or bard consistency. In makmg oleomargarine the manufacturer ripens pasteurized milk to that point where it will impart an agreeable flavor to the fats and oils which he prefers to use in his product. The mixture of ripened milk and fats and oils is agitated, chilled, and worked to remove the excess of water from it. It is salted to taste, molded into prints, and packed. Simplicity marks the whole process, which is one that is based on scientificprinciples. Extreme cleanliness is practised that a product of the desired quality may be obtained. That oleomargarine as it now leaves the factory is wholesome, pure, and clean, and possesses good foodvalue cannot be questioned. No public health problem seems to be involved in the modern product. I t is the only article of food except meat and meat products that is under government inspection and supervision. The Bureau of Animal Industry controls the labeling of it when it contains any animal fat. The Bureau of Internal Revenue controls the labeling of every pound of it regardless of its composition. The Food, Drug and Insecticide Administration has authority to prevent any adulteration or misbranding of it. Only two kinds of oleomargarine are made in this country. One is made
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of animal fats, vegetable fats, salt and milk. The other, which is popularly referred to as "nut oleomargarine," is made of vegetable fats, salt, andmilk. Though there is nothing in its composition to suggest the same origin as the type of oleomargarine first developed by M&geMouries, yet the same name is applied to i t because of a statute requirement that butter substitutes of this type be labeled oleomargarine. The principal raw materials which are a t present used in the manufacture of the several types of oleomargarine .are oleo oil, oleo stock, oleo stearin, neutral lard, peanut oil, coconut oil, cottonseed oil, milk, butter, and salt. Every manufacturer of oleomargarine uses that combination of these ingredients which best suits his purpose. All of them, it should be said, are never put into any one brand of oleomargarine. The names of most of the foregoing substances are sufficiently descriptive of themselves to call for no further comment. A few, however, bear description. Oleo oil, oleo stearin, and oleo stock are prepared from beef fat by successive steps of heating, settling, clarification, crystallization, and pressure. Oleo stock is nothing more than beef fat which bas been rendered a t a low temperature. It is a mixture of several fatty compounds, some of low melting point and others of higher melting point. This oleo stock is by mechanical nieans separated into its low melting-point fraction, or olein, and stearin, which has a much higher melting point. The former portion is known as oleo oil. Neutral lard is rendered from the choicest portions of hog fat, the leaf, by a process very much like that used in the preparation of oleo oil. It gets its name from the fact that i t is neutral in flavor, odor, and taste. Coconut oil is a product of the tropics, the fruit of the palm tree. Peanut and cottonseed oil are largely the products of the temperate zones. Both oils find use as salad oils. Milk seems to be indispensable in the manufacture of oleomargarine. It is a natural emulsion and an excellent emulsifying agent itself. Before a mixture of fats can be made into a product having the texture, appearance and consistency of oleomargarine, the latter must be emulsified. The addition of milk facilitates this operation. And then, too, milk when "ripened" or sour is the source of the flavor or taste of oleomargarine, a very necessary consideration since the fats which are used in making oleomargarine have been refined to the point where they have no taste or flavor. In the manufacture of oleomargarine it is desirable that its ingredients be brought together in such a manner that the combination be pleasing in appearance, convenient in texture and consistency, and satisfactory in flavor. To that end pasteurized milk is used. A "starter" is then added to i t in order to produce a pure fermentation or souring. To this milk are
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then added the fats and oils and the whole thoroughly agitated in churns until a complete emulsion is formed. The latter is then generally drawn off into a spray of ice water that the fats of the emulsion may crystallize. The resulting product has the texture and appearance of freshly churned butter. Water is then worked out of the product and salt added. Since there is a tax of ten cents per pound on artificially colored oleomargarine, very little is colored in the factory. The use of artificial color is discretionary with the consumer. If he wants his oleomargarine colored, he must do it himself. No discussion on oleomargarine can fail to include some comments on its food value and digestibility, for it is in this direction that much confusion exists. Dr. Charles Harrington of Harvard University, in his book "Practical Hygiene," writes: Much has been said concerning its digestibility, and alarmists have gone as far as to quite forclaim that it is indinestihle and likely 'to prove a prolific cause of dmsepsia, ~getting that the materials from which i t isrne.de have held a place in the dietaries of all civilized people since long before butter was promoted from its position as an ointment to that of an article of food. Many comparative studies have been made on this point and the results in general have shown that there is little if any difference. The two are t o all intents and purposes exactly alike in point of digestibility.
It was not so very long ago that experiments were made for the purpose of comparing the relative food value of butter and a so-called nut oleomargarine. Dr. Philip B. Hawk, who made these experiments, discusses them from the standpoint of digestibility and energy values as follows: In this investigation we took normal men and fed them these fats as they are eaten by the average individual. Then, by means of the most modern of scientific tests, we learned how these foods acted in the human hody. I n other words, we learned what the stomach and intestine had to say about vegetable margarine and butter. And when the tests were all completed, it was found that the vegetable margarine was just as digestible as butter, that i t had as high an energyvalue and that i t was just as completely absorbed from the intestine. I n other words, it was equally as s a t i s f a h r y a food from the above viewpoints as was butter. Such a margarine is also a very economical source of the energy-producing fat which we all need. The digestibility and energy values of this vegetable margarine being fully equivalent t o these values possessed by butter, i t would seem that the use of it by the public in place of butter is a perfectly sane dietetic pali~y.~
Another very important consideration, viewed in the light of our newer knowledge of nutrition, is the question of the vitamin content of oleomargarine. Dr. Hawk extended his research into these fields also. Briefly summed up, his conclusions with respect to this particular type of vegetable oleomargarine were as follows: an insignificant difference was observed in the "curative" effect produced by good creamery butter and this oleomargarine upon young white rats whose diets had been adequate for a P. B. Hawk, "Old and New Ideas of Diet," Food Research Laboratories, New York, 1926, p. 3.
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normal growth in every respect with the exception of vitamin A. Likewise the "protective" effect of these foods was studied. One lot of experimental animals was fed upon an adequate diet in which creamery butter furnished the vitamin A content, whereas another group was fed on the same diet except that this vegetable oleomargarine replaced the creamery butter. At the end of the test period of some sixty days the "oleomargarine rats" had gained a t approximately the same rate as the "butter rats." Vitamin D was also found to be present, but in no greater amount, if equal to it a t all, than in butter fat. The discussion, therefore, i t would seem, may very properly center around vitamin A. This vitamin is present in greater or less degree in some seventy to eighty articles of food. It is abundant in the green leaves of plants, in tomatoes, egg yolk, palm oil, beef fat, fish liver oil, pig's liver oil, kidney, the glandular organs in general, carrots, sweet potatoes, yellow corn, and in milk and its products. In view of this situation, one may ask does not the person who uses an ordinary, well-balanced diet secure enough of this vitamin for satisfactory growth and health? It would appear that he does. The oleomargarine that is made exclusively of vegetable oils, milk, and salt gets its vitamin A content from the milk which is always used in its manufacture. And, in fact, milk is used in the manufacture of not only the vegetable type of oleomargarine, but in the animal type as well. It is only fair to say that there is not unanimity of opinion among those who have made investigations on the vitamin content of the vegetable oleomargarines. But granting that this type may not have been found capable of maintaining satisfactory growth when it was the only source of vitamin A in the diet, may it not be proper to ask, in view of the wide distribution of this vitamin in nature, do we ever try to live on oleomargarine alone? We do not seriously believe that the cow will ever be replaced by the coconut or any other plant product in the "Who's Who" of the diet. The statement of Dr. Hawk that milk always has been and very probably always will be the best food for man's general use, we heartily subscribe to. Milk has no substitute. But as for the fat of milk, evidence supports the view, we believe, that those adults who, for reasons of taste and economy, may prefer oleomargarine, may very well follow their preferences without fear of a nutritional deficiency.
