Vegan margarine

[vegansunflower]

Thanks for moving this! I completly missed the original thread! Apologies to moderators!!

[Korn]

No problem!

(We also have this thread: Alternatives for butter and margarine)

I stopped using butter/margarine before I went vegan, so I've never checked this, but... aren't a lot of the regular soy margarines vegan?

[vegansunflower]

In my area we only have the larger grocery store chains that carry the usual milk based margarines. All of the ones that I have found that come even close to a vegan or soy based product ( usually a lactose free ) have something in them like d3 or whey proteins that make them not vegan. The Becel excited me because it's a recognized, widely distributed brand that my not so enlightened town would carry!

[convectuoso]

I always use vitalite now
It just tastes the best to me, especially on toast or potatoes

[DavidT]

Hi People

I have posted a thread of its one, but then I saw this thread, Pure have stopped making the Organic Version of their spread which was defiently the best tasting. Please can people contact Kerry Foods to request they start making it again.

I have e-mailed them expressing my disappointment but it looks like sales couldn't justify its continuation.

I told them I would not buy any of their other products.

Biona gets best marks in the last Ethical Consumer league table and it is rather good, if expensive.

[Chiyou]

Earth balance by far is the best and the taste is unbelievable

[DavidT]

Earth balance by far is the best and the taste is unbelievable

Sounds good - and their website says they have organic and vegan varieties available.

Sadly, not available over here! Still, we have some good manufacturers here so we'll keep the CO2 footprint down.

[caesar25]

I use Vitalite. It spreads really well and tastes very nice. If anyone knows of a good reason why I shouldn't use this then please let me know; I seem to get the feeling that it may not be a good one as nobody else has mentioned it. I trust that it's suitable for vegans as it states it on the tub.
Well it's usually a pound for 500g tub but on offer at the moment for 80p.

[caesar25]

Excuse me! Someone has has mentioned Vitalite. I missed that post before.

[DavidT]

Again, the Ethical Consumer report gives Vitalite a good mark, caesar25, coming in as above average ethically. It's also the cheapest per unit of weight!

We have some Vitaquell at the moment that contains no palm products (yay) but tbh is a bit greasy for my liking.

[Kimberlily1983]

Has anyone else tried the new Becel Vegan margarine? It's fortified with vitamin D2, non-hydrogenated... I was so excited to see a product created specifically for us!

[xrodolfox]

I want to fourth/fifth how awesome Earth Balance is. Rockin'.

[Back-Space]

Has anyone else tried the new Becel Vegan margarine? It's fortified with vitamin D2, non-hydrogenated... I was so excited to see a product created specifically for us!

I did try that Then I went back and got another because I was so surprised by the taste. You can notice a difference from regular margarine, but not a negative difference. Took me a while to find it too Was looking at all the different brands and types of butters and margarines and reading all the ingredients while theres one sitting there that said vegan right on the lid

[Kimberlily1983]

I want to fourth/fifth how awesome Earth Balance is. Rockin'.

Oooh, I know, it's great! I remember being very pleasantly surprised at how similar the taste was to butter. I wasn't expecting that.

[Kimberlily1983]

I did try that Then I went back and got another because I was so surprised by the taste. You can notice a difference from regular margarine, but not a negative difference. Took me a while to find it too Was looking at all the different brands and types of butters and margarines and reading all the ingredients while theres one sitting there that said vegan right on the lid

I first learned about it (Becel Vegan) while watching videos on YouTube. I saw an ad for it and was so excited! Then we were wandering around in the supermarket and I was pleasantly surprised to see it on the fridge shelf. I'm so happy people will be being exposed to the term "vegan" more. More and more products are carrying this on their labels, it's great.

[DavidT]

As we do a fair bit of baking I would love to see a vegan+organic+no palm products margarine fortified with B12 in larger tubs where the distributor ships to Ireland; I don't want much, do I?

[Gwydion]

organic + fortified with B12

I could be totally wrong here, but I don't think this would ever be possible? Ie, something organic cannot be fortified with B12?

Hit me with a stick and call me Nancy if I am way off key.

[DavidT]

I could be totally wrong here, but I don't think this would ever be possible? Ie, something organic cannot be fortified with B12?

Why would that be, G?

I've noticed that organic margarines are never fortified with B12; being thoroughly lazy sometimes means I've never tried to discover why. I could just assume there's no such thing as organic B12, to save me the effort!

Anyway, if that is the case, then how can salt, which is not classed as 'organic' in the SA sense of the word, be added?

Or am I on the wrong track entirely?¿

Hit me with a stick and call me Nancy if I am way off key.

Love to, absolutely love to...

[Jivattatva]

Canola margarine is best because according to wikipedia: canola oil is low in saturated fat, high in monounsaturated fat, and has a beneficial omega-3 fatty acid. The Canola Council of Canada states that it is completely safe and is the "healthiest" of all commonly used cooking oils.

[DavidT]

Canola oil - what we here call rapeseed oil. Yes, it is pretty good, one of the best oils. Even Tesco sell an organic one and it's good for chips (French fries).

I wonder if there's any margarine available here?

The Canola Council of Canada states that it is completely safe and is the "healthiest" of all commonly used cooking oils.

Would they say anything different?

[Jivattatva]

Hi David

Yes, you are right canola is a cultivar of rapeseed. Most probably you have would it also in margarine form in your country. Time for you to check out the chiller in your supermarket. In Australia it is available in big supermarkets.

[Jivattatva]

David
I think the article I read quoted Canada's council because Canada is one of the biggest producers of canola in the world and maybe because Canada has done so much research on the health benefits of canola. Besides in science conclusions sometime change when a new one comes up. I suppose maybe other countries have their own ideas , dont know if that makes sense.

[Gwydion]

Why would that be, G?

I've noticed that organic margarines are never fortified with B12; being thoroughly lazy sometimes means I've never tried to discover why. I could just assume there's no such thing as organic B12, to save me the effort!

I'm not 100% sure tbh, just noticed that organic products never seem to be, and kind of assumed along the same lines as you.

I too suffer from mass bouts of laziness, and was secretly hoping someone smarter than I would have chimed in with the answer by now

[Kimberlily1983]

Canola has a decent amount of omega-3s, I believe. I've read it's better to get organic as conventionally grown tends to be genetically modified (or can be).

I'm kind of confused, though. I've been told that canola is essentially genetically modified rapeseed. This implies ALL canola plants are genetically modified; is this right? One site seems to say that the plant itself is modified, but the oil is identical to that you would get from the non-modified plant.

[Enchantress]

In response to the discussion about b12 fortified organic margarine.

Is organic food fortified with vitamins and minerals?
Fortification refers to the policy of adding essential trace elements and vitamins to foodstuffs. Under Soil Association standards, organic foods must not be fortified with added artificial nutrients, unless required by law.

Why do you take this stance on fortification?
The Soil Association believes good health is founded on having a diet predominantly composed of minimally processed wholefoods. We cannot support food policies that accept the routine removal and degradation of nutrients by refining and other processing as normal, and then encourage the replacement of a few of the missing elements by fortification with synthetic versions.

We support greater consumption of wholefoods, and less consumption of refined, processed foods. This would address the many serious public health problems that are partially caused by unsuitable diets: obesity, cancer, constipation, behavioural problems, heart disease and infertility.

http://www.whyorganic.org/web/sa/saw...additives.html

[Gwydion]

Yeah, that's what I meant.

[harpy]

I'm kind of confused, though. I've been told that canola is essentially genetically modified rapeseed. This implies ALL canola plants are genetically modified; is this right? One site seems to say that the plant itself is modified, but the oil is identical to that you would get from the non-modified plant.

No, I don't think it's genetically modified - I think it was just selectively bred, to get plants with less erucic acid etc, and this happened decades ago before genetic modification was possible. (The Wikipedia entry on canola confirms this although of course we can't believe everything we read on the internet )

ETA of course selective breeding modifies genes in a sense but it's not what people usually mean by GM, which involves splicing genes together in a lab regardless of whether the organisms could interbreed naturally.

[Kimberlily1983]

Harpy, thanks for your response. Sounds good to me: we'll stick with organic canola oil.

I've got nothing against selective breeding; this has been done thousands (?) of years, or a very long time anyway, and has not caused any major ecological or health problems to my knowledge. As for GM, I'm sure not all GMOs are harmful, but as there's evidence to suggest some might be, and Monsanto cannot be trusted (it's clear they don't care about safety), I try to avoid them as much as possible.

[Tigerlily]

I stopped using butter/margarine before I went vegan, so I've never checked this, but... aren't a lot of the regular soy margarines vegan?

I'm not sure what it's like in Europe, but in North America, NO. 98% of margarine have some sort of dairy (usually whey and/or casein). There's also a big trend to for them to manufacture half margarine and half butter in one container. It kind of sucks. Luckily Canada now has two vegan alternatives for margarine/butter.

[Kimberlily1983]

I stopped using butter/margarine before I went vegan, so I've never checked this, but... aren't a lot of the regular soy margarines vegan?

I thought that, too, when I went vegan. It's a good thing I was into checking every label - even things I was sure were vegan - because we would have gone on eating it. It's as Tigerlily says, they all add whey or some other crap to it, at least in our part of the world.

[Tigerlily]

I've even seen gelatin added to some margarines too.

[jimmeh]

I've even seen gelatin added to some margarines too.

Flora spread in the UK used to do that but then they remembered there are a fair number of folk who wouldn't buy it because it's not halal. Never mind the vegans. But, a small win nevertheless.