I have been told that margarine starts off life black and is only yellow owing to dyes being added?

Question

is this true?

Answer 1

No, it's never black, but when the seeds or beans are crushed to produce the oil for margarine, that oil is a dark, golden colour. After processing , including bleaching, the oil becomes a light gold and this is what is bottled and sold as vegetable oil. From that point the refined oil is blended with ingredients such as vitamins, colouring (yellow), flavours and emulsifiers and then further processed into what we know as margarine. One of the most common colourings used is carotene (extracted from carrots).

Answer 2

Complete nonsense!

If you add any colour to something black you would only get a lighter shade of black! Try it with some paint... 1 part black paint mixed with 100 parts white will still be dark!

If you think about your question you should see that margarine ought to be 99.9% colouring if it was black before being coloured...

By the way, i agree with the other posters - use butter or olive oil - both are natural products and far tastier!

Answer 3

NO.

It does, however, start off white, and they add yellow food color to make it resemble butter.

In the 1930's and 1940's, when butter was rationed for the war effort, margarine was invented. Back then, it came w/ a color pouch the homemaker would mix and stir into the margarine to make it appealing in color. At some point the manufacturers figured out they could save consumers a step and mix it in for them.

Answer 4

It is a grey colour and it is dyed to look like butter. The colourings they use are E102, E110, both are considered toxic in large doses and are said to be responsible for hyper- activity in children.
A drug is derived from these colourings that is used to treat senile dementia. So next time you see granny sat there all spaced out, you'll know she has been at the margarine again!.
Other side effects are blurred vision, itchy skin, asthma, irritability.
I only eat butter and my chloresetrol is less than 4 which is brilliant. You can keep your nylon, plastic muck.

Answer 5

No it's not true:

"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 it is still illegal to sell margarine with coloring in Quebec, Canada."

Answer 6

I was at an Open University summer school a few years ago and we had a go and discovering what goes into margarine. It's really not that appetising when you compare it with butter.

Answer 7

I heard that too. Also that it is only one molecule away from being plastic and if you left it uncovered on a worktop, even the flies wont go near it.
I got that in an e mail a while ago. It maybe a touch unreliable tho

Answer 8

I don't think it starts black as I don't think yellow dye would completely cover the black colour. It's more likely to start clear, something resembling wallpaper paste and then they add lovely yellowness!
I suspect if we knew what went into all our food we wouldn't eat it.

Answer 9

I don't know if that is true but MSG starts black and becomes clear/white through the processing. My grandpa used to make it and he told me.
I like MSG (Accent). I don't know why people are against it. I have never had any reactions to it; other than noticing that the food tastes better.

Answer 10

Not true. Margarine, that my grandmother used to refer to as "axle grease" BTW, is made from vegetable oil. Before the emulsifiers are added to the base the product has a golden brown or colorless color.