What is added to vegetable oil to make it margarine?

Answer 1

Margarine is produced by emulsification of skim milk into vegetable oil. It is done by adding monoglycerides and diglycerides (which are emulsifiers) to the mixture of oil and water. The mixture is then mixed very rapidly, and cooled at the same time. At the end, the vegetable oil will solidify partly and trap water molecules inside.

Answer 2

Typically, vegetable oil is made into margarine by the process of hydrogenation. This process alters the molecules of vegetable oil to make it into a more highly "saturated" fat by passing hydrogen through it.

This process chemically alters the vegetable oil so that it's thicker and will hold its shape. The oil is usually then flavoured with some salt and possibly some flavourings, which in some cases include a bit of milk.

The more hydrogenated the oil is, the firmer the resulting margarine, so stick margarine is more hydrogenated than spreadable, which is more hydrogented than the squeeze bottle type.

There is much debate about this process as it's been found that hydroganted fat and trans fat is bad for human health, so you can now find some margarine products that are less hydroganted or that use a different process to harden the vegetable oil into a spread.

Answer 3

Hydrogenation

Answer 4

Hydrogenation