CHAPTER XI 



THE ADULTERATION OF DAIRY PRODUCTS 



103. Oleomargarine. Oleomargarine and butterine 

 are butter substitutes made from animal fats, cotton- 

 seed oil, and other materials, and resemble butter in 

 composition and taste. They contain about the same 

 percentage of water, fat, salt, and nitrogenous matter 

 as butter, but differ in not containing butyrin and 

 other characteristic volatile fatty acids present in but- 

 ter and not in butter substitutes. In the manufac- 

 ture of oleomargarine, the beef fats are put through 

 filter presses to remove a portion of the hard fats, 

 which are used for the manufacture of candles and 

 soap. The softer fats, with cotton-seed oil, are 

 placed in churns together with sweet milk, and 

 churned, salted, and worked like butter. By varying 

 the proportion of hard and soft fats, different grades 

 of oleomargarine can be produced, and these are sold 

 under various trade names. These products are 

 readily detected upon chemical analysis, as they fail 

 to yield the requisite amount of volatile fatty acids 

 (see section 40). 



104. Simple Methods for detecting Oleomargarine. 

 The boiling or spoon test is made in the following 

 way: A small piece of the sample is melted in a 



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