Margerine

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 144, 20 June 1936, Page 12

Margerine

A HUGE INDUSTRY With, the great advance taking place in technical knowledge the cost of producing margerinc is being reduced and the quality of the great butter substitute is being improved at the same time. Generally, the margerinc is made from copra (coeoanut, or rather the dried kernel of this), which is a fairly cheap substance. The copra is either used for making soap or for margeriue. When the copra is imported it is a badsmelling stuff, but the objectionable odours arc eliminated by heating and other processes, and the resultant product gives a substance part of which is known as “cofer,” and it is this white, "odourless fat called “cofer” which is used for the manufacture of margeriue. In order to make it saleable in competition with butter it has to be coloured and flavoured and given the requisite odour. Until lately it was difficult to make this material into a sufficiently plastic condition without the admixture of butter or other suitable substance, such us animal fats, but recently a new process has been evolved by which “cofer” can bo made into a plastic condition very similar to butter, and it needs only suitable colour, flavour and smell to be provided in order to make it a complete imitation of newly-churned butter. A Mighty Organisation. Both in England and Europe the production of margerinc is very largely under the control of the Margerinc Union, which employs a staff of competent scientific men, both in the improvement of the mechanical plant and its scientific processes. The great combine spends a large sum of money in advertising, and iu tile year 1932 it is reported to have spent more than a million pounds in this way. Margerinc is sold retail iu England at varying prices, ranging from 5d a pound retail for the cheaper cooking varieties up to Is a pound for the better qualities. There are no restrictions on the sale of margerinc in England, and production reached its highest point in 1929, when the total was 2SS,000 tons. In 193,3 the production fell to 180,000 tons. The reason for this .fall in consumption is to be found iu the decline of approximately Gd a pound in retail prices of imported butter. Imports of margeriue into England from Denmark and other countries fell from 90,300 tons in 1925 to 4600 tons in 1932, and the import price fell from 70s to 435. a cwt. It is clear that the price of New Zealand and other butters on the London market are partly regulated at the price at w'hicli coloured, flavoured, and odourised margeriue can be sold for table use, and the supply of raw material for margerinc is practically unlimited.