Study similar to the previous one was made on commercially available margarines in England. The samples used were 15 brands of margarine (including 10 of the high linoleic type), 14 ones of low fat spread (including 5 of the high linoleic type), and 5 ones of dairy spread (compound type, only), totaling 34.
1) The contents of lipid and water in margarine averaged 80.8 and 16.0%, respectively, while taht of lipid in low fat spread ranged from 72.1 to 19.1%. To low fat products large amounts of stabilizers of emulsion, were added, as well as sorbic acid.
2) Almost all the samples were fortified with vitamins A and D3, and vitamin B12 was also found in a few samples. To high linoleic products, α-tocopherol was added, and palm oil was blended about half the samples, since tocotrienols had been detected.
3) Cholesterol was detected only a trace amount in products labelled as vegetable oils on the package, butΔ7-stigmastenol and avenasterol were present in greater amounts in products labelled as sunflower oil than in others.
4) The levels of c, c-18 : 2 fatty acid in both high linoleic types of the margarine and low fat spread averaged 49.1 and 43.8%, respectively. Each level of t-18 : 1 averaged 6.0% in the former, 7.9% in the latter and 10.1% in the dairy spread, the values being relatively low.
5) On SFC curves, high linoleic margarine was shown to be softer at low temperature, but showed more SFC with rise in temperature than the other types. This finding was consistent with the melting point.
