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Background. Margarine was invented in France by Hippolyte Mèges-Mouries in response to Napoleon III's call for a cheap alternative to butter for French workers and for his armies in the Franco-Prussian war. The first margarine, consisting of beef tallow churned with milk, was patented in 1869.

In the 1890s, federal restrictions prevented manufacturers from adding artificial dyes, forcing them instead to sell the margarine in its natural, white form so it wouldn't so closely resemble its rival. Several states even passed laws requiring margarine to be dyed pink to distinguish it from traditional butter.Aug 8, 2017

A question of colour

When produced, margarine is a pasty white colour, which looks unappetizing. ... Beginning in the 1870s, margarine manufacturers added yellow colouring to make their product look like butter. The dairy industry thought this was misleading, so provinces banned the sale of yellow margarine.Oct 11, 2019

Margarine turns yellow.

The surface becoming darker is a classic sign of oxidation, and you've probably seen the same happen to butter. If the layer of yellowness is paper-thick, you can scrape it off, but if it's much thicker, it's better to get rid of the container or tub.Dec 9, 2019

When suspended in milk or cream, a membrane surrounds the beta-carotene-containing fat globules, essentially obscuring the yellow color. When milk or cream is churned, as is required when making butter, the membrane is broken and beta-carotene is released, turning the butter solid yellow.

• In other words, the manufacture could not add food color to the margarine to make it look more like butter. Another irony, however, is that butter often had color added to it, I understand, because it often looks pale in its natural state.

• Cudahy's Delrich brand of margarine used a "color berry" to color its white vegetable-based margarine yellow. This 1948 advertisement demonstrates how to color the margarine inside the package In 1877, New York became the first U.S. state to attempt legal restriction of the sale of oleomargarine through compulsory labeling.

• Bootleg colored margarine became common, and manufacturers began to supply food-coloring capsules so the consumer could knead the yellow color into margarine before serving it.

• At that time, the sale of colored margarine was not legal and the margarine people gave out color pills or put their margarine in squeeze bags so that the consumer could make his margarine yellow. Well, as I took my butter notes I also watched many many people buying margarine.

The margarine industry has introduced a color pellet into the margarine container and by merely kneading the bag in which the margarine is sold, the housewife can color the margarine. Albert Lowenfels (whose work for Hotel Bar Butter we were just looking at on Monday) while clearly a “butter man” has also defended margarine’s right to be yellow.

Margarine, oleomargarine or just plain oleo is a butter substitute and the most popular of them In fact it might be more popular than butter now. I remember in high school that it was controversial. I lived in Minnesota, which is a dairy state so, it has a vested interest in people using butter.

Cudahy's Delrich brand of margarine used a "color berry" to color its white vegetable-based margarine yellow. This 1948 advertisement demonstrates how to color the margarine inside the package In 1877, New York became the first U.S. state to attempt legal restriction of the sale of oleomargarine through compulsory labeling.

Butter was sold in its familiar golden yellow color, while margarine was sold in white. With the legalities of that time, margarine wasn’t permitted to look like butter--- meaning, no golden yellow color. If the housewife insisted on margarine, she bought it in its white content.