The Scoop on Margarine

3. How Margarine is Made

Margarine is made with vegetable oils, although some brands add cow's milk. Crude vegetable oil is dark, viscous, and pungent, and it undergoes degumming, deodorizing, and filtering processes to become a more translucent liquid. The liquid solidifies as it interacts with hydrogen gas through partial hydrogenation. The result is a smelly, lumpy, gray mass. Margarine manufacturers mix in emulsifiers, then steam-clean and bleach the solid fat into vegetable shortening. After adding synthetic vitamins and flavors to the shortening, produces package margarine in tubs and blocks. The yellow color comes from a natural source such as annatto, per government guidelines that prohibit artificial dyes.