Surprising facts about margarine

Read on to know how margarine is made!

Off late, more and more people are turning vegan as it is the need of the hour. The vegan diet promotes a cruelty-free, plant-based, and healthy eating culture. With the growing popularity of the vegan diet, people are seeking healthy vegan food alternatives to manage their meals.

Margarine is one such vegan substitute to regular butter that is prepared by combining water with any type of vegetable oil such as corn, soybean, canola, palm, or olive oil. To this mixture, some food coloring and salt are added to make it taste as close to regular butter. This means, margarine contains no animal-based product and is free from lactose as well.

The vegan margarine should also be free from whey, lactose, casein, animal fat, marine oil (sourced from fish), lecithin (sourced from eggs), vitamin D3 or lanolin (sourced from sheep’s wool), tallow (sourced from sheep or cattle), and suet (sourced from kidneys or loins of animals).

However, one must be cautious of not overeating it. Margarine may be vegan but still, it is a refined product and contains fewer vitamins, minerals, and other beneficial compounds that can be sourced from plants. Sadly, some varieties of margarine are also processed by hydrogenation and results in the formation of harmful trans-fats.