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Is There Margarine Without Palm Oil?

I am interested in whether there is margarine without palm oil.

There are some suppliers of margarine on the market that do not use palm oil. Unfortunately, a margarine without palm oil is not automatically the better margarine.

If there is no palm oil in the margarine, other tropical fats such as coconut or shea fat are used instead. Coconut oil is no more sustainable than palm oil, even if the reputation seems to be better.

Margarine is an industrially produced fat-water mixture that would not be spreadable without hardening. Trans-fatty acids can form during hardening. These increase the bad LDL cholesterol in the blood and put a strain on the cardiovascular system. In the meantime, margarine producers have recognized the problem and reduced it through other procedures, so that trans fatty acids in margarine are hardly relevant today.

Solid fats such as palm oil or coconut oil are added to the margarine to harden it. In contrast to sunflower or rapeseed oil, for example, palm oil is solid at room temperature.

Palm oil is very often used in the food industry. It offers many advantages to producers, including being very inexpensive and being harvested in large quantities.

Many consumers would like to consciously avoid consuming palm oil. An important ecological aspect is that rainforests are being cleared in order to plant oil palm plantations and to extract palm oil from there. Another point of criticism is that pollutants can be absorbed through the consumption of palm oil. Carcinogenic pollutants such as 3-MCPD and glycidol fatty acid esters have been detected in refined oils, especially palm oil.

When consuming products containing palm oil, it is important to pay attention to the RSPO palm oil certificate. However, only with the addition of SG or IP can it be ensured that all of the palm oil in the product is certified.

In terms of nutritional physiology, palm oil is actually better than e.g. coconut oil or shea fat. Because it contains a little more of the healthy unsaturated fatty acids compared to its tropical colleagues.

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Written by John Myers

Professional Chef with 25 years of industry experience at the highest levels. Restaurant owner. Beverage Director with experience creating world-class nationally recognized cocktail programs. Food writer with a distinctive Chef-driven voice and point of view.

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