Oils Used in Vegetable Oil Margarines and Spreads

The mandatory fortification of margarine with Vitamin A is accomplished by the addition of p-carotene (pro-Vitamin A) and/or Vitamin A esters. The carotene level is adjusted for the desired color and the colorless esters (acetate, palmitate, etc.) are used to standardize the vitamin content. Addition of Vitamin D is optional. Fortification with Vitamin E is not permitted by the U.S. margarine standard, but recently some spreads fortified with Vitamin E have appeared in the marketplace in the United States, and fortification of both margarines and spreads has recently been done in Europe. The naturally occurring Vitamin E content of vegetable oil margarines available in the United States has been reported (227). 

It is worth noting that in countries such as the USA, the content of trans fatty acids (such as CLA) must be declared on food products, with a view to eliminating these from the human diet. This is because of an association between coronary heart disease in man and trans fatty acids produced from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils that are used in the manufacture of margarines and spreads. Such products have a different profile of trans fatty acids compared with those observed in milk. Indeed, the most common trans fatty add found in milk is cis-9, trans-11 CLA, and there is evidence from laboratory animals that this fatty acid has a beneficial effect on protecting against certain types of cancer, coronary heart disease and diabetes. 

Dietary fat includes not only the obvious fat in the diet (the visible fat on meat, cooking oil, butter or margarine spread on bread), but also the hidden fat in foods. This latter may be either the fat naturally present in foods (e.g. the fat between the muscle fibres in meat, the oils in nuts, cereals and vegetables) or fat used in cooking and manufacture of foods. There are two problems associated with a high intake of fat ... 

In the question of which is the healthiest to spread on our toast -butter, containing saturated fats which have been linked to coronary disease and strokes, or margarine, with the possible risks associated from TFAs - well, the jury is still out... But best of all, just use pure vegetable oil on your bread, like the Mediterraneans do ... 

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