water in margarine?

kate1956

Hi I thought all you knowledgeable people might know the answer to this one - I left a tub of margarine out of the fridge today and when I opened it the margarine was floating in water - presumably having separated for some reason. Does anyone know is it safe to eat and why would it do this? I'd hate to waste it but am not sure about it. Thanks in advance
kate

angelavdavis

Margarine is a water (20%) in fat (80%) emulsion (pretty gross - I bet you're glad you asked now). So, its probably the fats releasing the water in the warm atmosphere. :eek:

I am the worst person to ask as I can't stand margarine - although UK is better at excluding trans fats, I am not convinced. If you dare, you might want to read this to find out why.

One of my OU professors invented clover marge - he was a lovely chap, but I told him it was the devil's food!

I would chuck it (but also say never buy it again). Sorry, just my opinion.

Use organic butter sparingly instead. Yes its higher cholesterol but its natural and contains lots of good stuff too.

allIcouldwishfor

Is margarine ever safe to eat? Like angelavdavis I only use organic butter. I once toyed with the idea of organic olive oil spread but in the ingredients it revealed that it contained only 4% organic olive oil!!!:eek:

thriftlady_2

Yes, yes :T I'm with Angela and AllIcouldwishfor on this (see my sig ) .

Although I wouldn't eat the stuff, I think it would probably be OK to eat if you give it a stir.

Quasar

Margarine is hydrogenated vegetable oils, which means that hydgrogen atoms have been added to the long molecule chains thus altering the properties of vegetable oils. These oils are liquid even down to very low temperatures, but by hydrogenating them they become solid like saturated fat. Whlst they are not saturated, their changed state makes them less than healthy. This the drawback of industry-convenient transfats.

I'm not sure the UK is better than Europe with regard to transfats, and certainly not better than countries such as France or Italy or Spain, where butter/margarine are used to a far lesser extent, whilst healthy olive oil is used more in cooking (or a bit of butter on occasion).

manicstreetpreacher

M and S reduced fat olive oil spread is lovely and not as expensive as you may think - think it's around 79p for a small tub

DjSatansfury

I buy Vitalite. Seems to taste much nicer if you ask me.

Nova5

I use olive oil spread and vitalite for baking. Are the trans-fats in these?

kate1956

Thanks everyone - I did chuck it in the end as although we'd eaten a bit I didn't fancy it - although am not dead yet (lol) so will take the above advice and not buy it again - it is a bit yuk!
actually I've just realised that it's called 'sunflower spread' (tesco) but I still don't fancy it anymore!!

thriftlady_2

I don't think all spreads have hydrogenated veg oils (and so trans fats) in them. I think you can get quite good vegan spreads. They are still, however, highly processed whereas butter is just churned from cream

This is from the Butter Board, so a bit biased maybe
http://www.naturalandtasty.co.uk/margarine_process.htm

Penelope_Penguin

kate1956 wrote: »

Hi I thought all you knowledgeable people might know the answer to this one - I left a tub of margarine out of the fridge today and when I opened it the margarine was floating in water - presumably having separated for some reason. Does anyone know is it safe to eat and why would it do this? I'd hate to waste it but am not sure about it. Thanks in advance
kate

I'm sceptical that the water was from the margarine. As angeladavis said, margarine is an emulsion of oil and water. Breaking that emulsion so that the water separates is not an easy task.

Did the water get in from somewhere else - a leak from above, or drips from the back of the fridge?

Just because a spread has *hydrogenated fats* doesn't mean they contain *trans fats*. It depends on the method and conditions of hydrogenation.

Have to agree with thriftlady (as ever ) have butter - it tastes better and is just milk and some salt.

Penny. x