Are Original Formulas Always Better???

Back in the 1990's I had ordered a men's cologne sampler for my then boyfriend, Jason, from Caswell-Massey, the oldest apothecary brand in the United States dating back to 1752. I really liked their botanical scents and commitment to refrain from animal testing. Jason really liked the citrusy scent of Number Six, reportedly from the original formula that George Washington enjoyed. Yet, as an advocate for endangered species, I wondered...wouldn't an original formula from the 1700's contain ingredients derived from whales?!?!?

(NOTE: Since then Caswell-Massey have clarified themselves by stating that their products are DERIVED FROM the original formulas, using ingredients such as milk, honey, coconut oil, olive oil, and palm oil.)

Sometimes it's good we don't use original formulas!!

Which brings me to the issue of palm oil and margarine.....and whales...

After reading about the issue of Indonesian rainforest destruction and the complexities of ensuring truly sustainable sources of palm oil, I could no longer walk down the refrigerated aisle in the supermarket and buy margarine without picturing Sumatran tigers leaping out at me. (I recall, hearing as a child, that Sumatran tigers would go extinct in my lifetime.)

My elder sister was a nurse and had already switched to butter to avoid the hydronated fats, but the issue of rainforest destruction pushed me over the edge.

I could not find a store brand of margarine that did not contain palm oil, even in the vegan spreads, so I googled the history of margarine to see when the manufacturers stopped using other vegetable oils. Yet, what I learned was a bit surprising.

My WW2 generation mother had told me tales of having to add color capsules to margarine, so I had imagined that margarine was invented as a response to WW2 rationing.

Actually, margarine was invented by Hippolyte Meges-Mouries in response to a challenge from Napoleon III for a cheap alternative to butter that would not spoil on the battlefield. He used beef tallow and milk for his new spread, and margarine was patented in 1869.

As the new invention crossed the ocean, the dairy industries in the US and Canada fought back with prohibitions on dyeing the new product yellow, high sales taxes, and even outright bans. Laws were even proposed to color margarine pink, brown, and black until the US Supreme Court ruled "pink laws" unconstitutional in 1898.

Now I know why my Mom had to color her own margarine....and the war rationing did play a part in introducing more people to margarine as butter required more ration cards than "oleo margarines."

In 1902 Wilhelm Normann of Germany patented the process of hardening oils by hydrogenation. So, did everyone start using vegetable oils??

No, whale oil was a cheap ingredient for margarine even if it was inferior in smell and taste. Then, in 1929, research scientists working for the Lever Brothers, a British business, and Margarine Unie, a Dutch company, developed a way to make whale oil odorless and stiff. A year later these firms merged into Unilever, the largest purchaser of whale oil at the time. Their margarine product outsold their soap, and the whale harvest tripled in 1931. By 1935, 85% of the world's whale oil was used in margarine production.

I cannot find an exact date when whale oil was replaced with vegetable oil (or how much of the whale oil made it's way into US margarine). One source suggests whale oil was an ingredient at least until the 1940's, another the 60's, and another not until a final ban in the 80's.

I recall Jane Goodall saying she was relieved that she escaped consuming whale meat during the war rationing in Great Britain, but I'm afraid my parents might have unknowingly eaten their share of whale oil in margarine.

And that vegetable oil was eventually replaced with cheaper palm oil, so I guess I ate the rainforest! Gulp!

MY RESEARCH IS BASED ON ONLINE ARTICLES BY SETH MILLER AT MISSION.ORG, SARAH SUDIN, SARAH LASKOW ON ATLAS OBSCRURA, BRYAN CASEY ON INGENIUM CHANNEL, AND M. VAISEY GENSER IN THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FOOD, SCIENCE, AND NUTRITION AS POSTED ON SCIENCE DIGEST AS WELL AS WIKIPEDIA