The coloring and regulations on margarine were most prominent in the dairy states and lasted into the 1960s with Minnesota finally abandoning such regulations in 1963.
But the butter lobby was soon back to regulating margarine even through WWII. One coloring that was proposed was to make it pink so that it would look unpalatable.ĭuring WWI, dairy products became scarce so margarine use increased. In other states, laws were enacted regarding the coloring of margarine to prevent it from looking like butter. The color bans began in the then dairy states of New York and New Jersey. By the 1880s the federal government tried a tax of two cents per pound on margarine and manufacturers had to be licensed to make it. The development of margarine occurred in the late 1800s, and it was not long before the butter lobby sought to prevent inroads into butter sales. Having lived through the depression years, my parents were certainly frugal and I do remember having to have the appropriate rationing stamps to buy certain items including butter. At the time I am not sure if I knew exactly why we used oleo and not butter, but it could have been either a cost-saving measure or maybe even a rationing question during the war. Of course the dye added nothing to the taste, but it no longer looked like that white paste used in our school classrooms, which some kids were known to eat. Another of those sibling rivalries usually settled by my mother who, I suppose, had kept track of who did the kneading the time before. I had to compete with my brother to see who got to knead the bag of oleo. We then put the contents of the bag into a couple of small bowls that could be placed on the dining table and used as though it were butter.
By squeezing the bag you could burst the yellow dye out and then by kneading you could color the entire contents of the bag a yellow (buttery) color. What I remembered from the WWII era was buying oleomargarine, oleo for short or just margarine in a plastic bag with a little yellow dye spot in the middle of the bag. A couple of weeks ago when I got to thinking about the old milk bottles and the milk boxes that were common on front porches to allow the milkman to deliver milk without bothering the residents of the house, I naturally also got to thinking about butter made from the cream and from there to the butter substitute: margarine, which is made from vegetable oil.