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How Margarine and Shortening are Made

• Manufacturers start with the cheapest vegetable oils, extracted at high temperatures and pressures from corn, cottonseed, soybeans, safflower seeds and canola.
• The last fraction of oil is removed with hexane, a carcinogenic solvent.
• The oils, already rancid from the extraction process, are steam cleaned. This destroys all the vitamins and antioxidants, but pesticides and solvents remain.
• The oils are mixed with a finely ground nickel catalyst.
• The oils are then put in a reactor where at high temperatures and pressures, they are flooded with hydrogen gas. The molecular structure is rearranged - what goes into the reactor is a liquid oil, what comes out is a smelly, lumpy, grey semi-solid.
• Soap-like emulsifiers are mixed in to remove all all the lumps.
• The oil is steam cleaned (again!) to remove the odor of chemicals.
• The oil is then bleached to get rid of the grey color.
• Synthetic vitamins and artificial flavors are mixed in.
• A natural yellow color is added to margarine-- synthetic coloring is not allowed! The mixture is packaged in blocks or tubs and promoted to the public as a health food.



_{Source: Weston Price Foundation}