Vegetable soft fats 26
Cottonseed 13
Peanut 6
Sesame 6
Soya-bean 1
Water, milk, salt 14
___
100

This is not the composition of any particular brand but the average of
them all. The use of a certain amount of the oil of the sesame seed is
required by the laws of Germany and Denmark because it can be easily
detected by a chemical color test and so serves to prevent the margarin
containing it from being sold as butter. "Open sesame!" is the password
to these markets. Remembering that margarin originally was made up
entirely of animal fats, soft and hard, we can see from the above
figures how rapidly they are being displaced by the vegetable fats. The
cottonseed and peanut oils have replaced the original oleo oil and the
tropical oils from the coconut (copra) and African palm are crowding out
the animal hard fats. Since now we can harden at will any of the
vegetable oils it is possible to get along altogether without animal
fats. Such vegetable margarins were originally prepared for sale in
India, but proved unexpectedly popular in Europe, and are now being
introduced into America. They are sold under various trade names
suggesting their origin, such as "palmira," "palmona," "milkonut,"
"cocose," "coconut oleomargarin" and "nucoa nut margarin." The last
named is stated to be made of coconut oil (for the hard fat) and peanut
oil (for the soft fat), churned up with a culture of pasteurized milk
(to impart the butter flavor). The law requires such a product to be
branded "oleomargarine" although it is not. Such cases of compulsory