In its November issue, Öko-Test tested margarine.
The telling title of the magazine is “Palm oil for breakfast” - many brands also contain harmful substances.
Germany - whether breakfast, dinner or lunch: Margarine is on the menu of many consumers every day.
It would be all the more important that the products that are widely used are free of harmful substances.
Öko-Test has now revealed that this is unfortunately not the case, as reported by ruhr24.de *.
Eco test | Consumer magazine |
First edition | 1985 |
Frequency of publication | monthly |
Margarine at Öko-Test - this is how it was tested
For its margarine test, the consumer magazine put a total of 20 vegetable margarines to the test.
The products were analyzed in the laboratory for the most important problematic substances.
In addition, the testers also rated the fat composition.
Because this would provide information about the content of harmful trans fatty acids, explains the consumer magazine (further test reports * on RUHR24).
Margarine put to the test: "pollutant bombs" - around a quarter fail
The sobering result of the testers: only two products are "good".
Another twelve margarines land in the middle of the field.
Around a quarter fail completely in the test.
Because of an increased pollutant content, six brands even only receive the grades “poor” or “unsatisfactory”.
Vegetable margarine at Öko-Test: cheap products from Rewe and Penny disappoint
The test losers include the following three products:
Product:
Sojola, vegan
;
Provider: Vandemoortele;
Price per 500 g: 1.55 euros;
Test result of questionable ingredients: unsatisfactory;
Overall rating: unsatisfactory
Product:
Penny Plant Margarine
;
Provider: Penny;
Price per 500 g: 0.89 euros;
Test result of questionable ingredients: unsatisfactory;
Overall judgment: unsatisfactory
Product:
Yes!
Vegetable margarine
;
Provider: Rewe;
Price per 500 g: 0.89 euros;
Test result of questionable ingredients: unsatisfactory;
Overall judgment: unsatisfactory
There are other losers and the winners of the test at Öko-Test (paid items).
Mineral oil found in margarine: All tested products are contaminated
A major problem in the test are saturated mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOSH).
They were found in all margarines by the laboratory.
In three quarters of the cases, Öko-Test * even rated the found content as "increased" or "greatly increased".
Even when testing peanuts, the testers already found mineral oil for some brands *.
MOSH can accumulate in human adipose tissue as well as in the liver.
The consequences this can have for the human body are considered to have been insufficiently researched and are therefore still unknown.
Margarine in the test: products with palm oil cannot prove minimum standards
Another point of criticism from the consumer magazine is palm oil, which is highly controversial because of its unsustainable production.
A total of 15 products in the test contain palm oil.
Of these, only nine manufacturers can prove that they adhere to the specified minimum standards for responsibly produced palm oil.
However, Öko-Test also notes that there is no alternative to completely doing without palm oil.
Because a lot of palm oil could be extracted from a comparatively small cultivation area.
Noteworthy in this context: The palm oil-free variants are not really convincing either.
The palm oil problem: margarine with alternative fats is not convincing
With the product “Sojola vegan”, a palm oil-free margarine is even a test loser.
The problem here: The product contains soybean oil from Brazil.
The testers complain that this is by no means more sustainable than palm oil.
Because in Brazil entire forest areas for soy cultivation would disappear.
“Sojola vegan” also contains glycidol, a possibly carcinogenic fat pollutant.
In principle, variants with shea or coconut are therefore better, notes the consumer magazine.
However, the environment obviously benefits more than humans.
As Öko-Test explains, these fats contain even fewer healthy, unsaturated fatty acids than palm oil.
Margarine put to the test: products with sunflower and rapeseed oil are test winners
Incidentally, the two test winners contain a mixture of rapeseed, palm and coconut oil.
Rapeseed oil, but also sunflower oil, contains more of the valuable, unsaturated fatty acids, the testers make clear.
Products with a lot of rapeseed or sunflower oil were also able to convince in the margarine test carried out by Stiftung Warentest in 2017 - as were those with linseed oil.
If you rely on the recommendation of the test reports, you should use margarine with these oils.
* RUHR24 is part of the IPPEN.MEDIA editorial network.
List of rubric lists: © Christin Klose / dpa
