170 THE NUT BUTTER INDUSTRY 



ever-increasing quantities consumed, which prove 

 beyond doubt that the prejudice which formerly 

 existed against all butter substitutes has practically 

 disappeared. 



Nothing has been more remarkable in modern 

 commerce than the sudden development of the 

 nut butter industry, which was almost non-existent 

 a few years ago. It has now attained such huge 

 proportions that one firm alone is using over 

 550 tons of coconut products every week in the 

 manufacture of this article. 



It must not be thought that substitutes for 

 butter originated from coconut products, for long- 

 before their value was recognised margarines and 

 other substitutes were largely produced from 

 neutral lard and oleo extracted from animal fat. 

 According to a recent writer, the credit for invent- 

 ing the first substitute belongs to a French chemist 

 named Mege Mouries, the suggestion having come 

 from Napoleon III., who was anxious to procure 

 a cheap and wholesome substitute for butter for 

 the use of the poorer classes in Paris who could 

 not afford to purchase dairy produce. This was 

 about the year 1870, and the substitute in question 

 was made almost entirely from beef suet. The 

 Mege Mouries process had a certain vogue, but was 

 finally abandoned owing to the expense of the 

 principal constituents, it being calculated in 1885 

 that 150,000 head of cattle produced only 3,000 tons 



