h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In the section 'What is Margerine' it says in the last paragraph:
'In Europe, three of the six most common blends of fats include whale oil or animal fat.'

This is just completely wrong. Whale hunting is forbidden in the EU and ecologists here would certainly protest violently. Whale oil was inded a thing in margerine in the early - mid 20th Century (Dmitri found this nice article here https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-margarine-made-of )
To be honest I haven't even ever seen any margerine made from anything but vegetable oils, but I can imagine others exist in some countries.

Anyway, could we get rid of this wrong information in that Entry please?

That's a good point well made – that sentence has been deleted.

True - the EU has banned its members from whaling and has banned all imports of whale products. However not every European country is in the EU. While there's no way that Brexit will result in the UK conducting whaling (the UK independently banned it before the EU did) other European countries – Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland – still continue. But even so, I can't find anything that suggests that Norwegian and Icelandic margarine is made from whale fat today.

As far as animal fat is concerned it appears that all margarine sold in the UK is animal fat-free and suitable for vegetarians, with the possible exception of the few brands that may contain E471 which may be animal-based, but probably isn't: http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/food-drink/shopping-guide/butter-spreads

<BB<

^thanks

I would guess most margarines in the EU are vegan with only few exceptions, but some certainly exist somewhere.