BUTTER AND MARGARINE: VITAMIN CONTENT.

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 96, 20 October 1926, Page 11

BUTTER AND MARGARINE: VITAMIN CONTENT.

Supplementary to the report of the Imperial Economic Committee on dairying is a report on margarine, which includes the following interesting conclusions and recommendations:— 1. The production of margarine is to-day dependent in the main on vegetable oils por^ duced in tropical and sub-tropical climates. It is, therefore, the basis of an Important natural trade, the interchange of primary tropical produce for the manufactured products of the temperate zones. 2. There is but little difference in the fat and protein contents of margarine and butter, and from that point of view they are foods of equivalent value. 3. The vitamin content of butter is high when It is made from the milk of meadow-fed cows, but the vitamin content of margarine made from vegetable oils is almost negligible. It follows that margarine is a useful food for adult persons, especially for muscle workers, but because of its vitamin deficiency inferior to butter even for adults and very definitely for growing children. 4. These statements may be modified in some degree in respect of margarine which contains a proportion of butter and other animal fats. 5. The chief problem of research in connection with margarine is the discovery of sonic palatable oil rich in vitamins and suitable for mixturo with tho other ingredients. 0. We recommend that funds should be made available for research with the view to the conversion of fish oils and fats into an edible form. 7. It is likely that the supply of vegetable oils from the tropical and sub-tropical lands will increase with the greater employment of the residues locally as food for cattle and for manure. Tills is especially the case In the densely peopled land of India, and the problem for research in this connection is in regard to the transport of oil in bulk In tanker ships from India to Europe. Further, the committee make definite suggestions in regard to the increased production of vegetable oils, particularly in India and the Southern Pacißc.