Commercial margarines, cooking fat and lard in Germany were assessed for quality, using 16 brands of margarine (including 4 of high linoleic type), 9 of low fat spread (including 4 of high linoleic type), 4 of dairy spread (compound type, 2 ; low fat butter, 2), 11 of cooking fat and 8 of lard, totaling 48.
1) Lipid and water content averaged 80.0 and 19.4% in margarine, while 39.5 and 56.8% in low fat spread, respectively. The latter had about half calories of the former. Sorbic acid and stabilizers of emulsion were added to the low fat spread.
2) Almost all margarine samples were fortified with vitamins A and D3, and vitamin B6, was also found in some cases. To all high linoleic products, α-tocopherol was added, and tocotrienols were detected in 6 brands of margarine, indicating blending palm oil to possibly be present.
3) Cholesterol was detected only as a trace in products labelled vegetable oil on tha package, but Δ7-stigmastenol and avenasterol were detected in greater amounts in high linoleic products than in others.
4) Since high linoleic margarines comprised of 64.351. 1% (57.7% in average) of c, c-18 : 2 fatty acid, and contained less trans fatty acids, they were considered “zero-trans” products. The ratios of α-tocopherol (mg) /polyunsaturated fatty acids (g) in these ranged from 1.45 to 0.63 (1.00 in average), indicating α-tocopherol to be sufficiently present.
5) Various types of composition were present in cooking fat, most lard product were characteristically present in addition to onion and spices.
6) SFC curves indicated the high linolleic type of margarines to be softer than others in the low temperature region. The dairy spread showed more SFC in the low temperature region, but less SFC in the higher region than margarines. SFC in cooking fat varied considerably according to type, and lard showed a SFC curve with a unique feature of a wide melting range.
