Butter or margarine?

I'm going to have a look at the contents of what we in everyday life call "butter". I'll also look at the contents of actual butter and margarine.

"Lätta" margarine. (27kr/kg) 
Ingredients: Water,  vegetable fat, rapeseed oil, buttermilk, modified starch, salt, emulsifying agents, preservatives, acidity regulators, aroma compound, vitamin A and D.



"Becel" (38kr/kg) 
Ingredients: Water, vegetable oil, vegetable fat, gelatin(?!), salt, emulsifying agents, preservatives, acidity regulators, aroma compound, vitamin A and D.

"Svenskt Smör" Butter (56kr/kg)
Ingredients: Pasteurised cream, lactic acid starter culture, salt



 

"Milda" margarine (26kr/kg)
Ingredients: Vegetable fat, vegetable oil, water, whey, salt, emulsifying agents, aroma compound, vitamin A and D.




So what do you put on your sandwich? Water, oil, aroma compound and additives (margarine) or butter?

Mini-dictionary:
Vegetable fat/oil: Oil and fat from plants. For example from rapeseed or palm trees.
Emulsifying agent: An agent used to mix two substances that wouldn't normally mix. For example oil and water.
Aroma compound: (Often chemical) compounds used to add a certain flavour.
Whey:  A product left when making cheese. Mostly water, but it also contains milk sugar and lactic acid.

Real butter is made from cream and does not contain any vegetable fat or oil, therefore, no emulsifying agents are needed. Since it's already butter, there's no need for aroma compounds that add butter flavour. The butter is made from cream, so it already contains everything that whey contains. If you buy real butter, it doesn't have to contain a bunch of shady ingredients, but if a company wants to use the cheaper vegetable fat, they'll need to add a lot of things to ensure that the consumers still think it's butter.

The real butter from "Svenskt smör" is the one with the highest price, but it is also the one with the best ingredients. Among the other "butter", Becel is very expensive compared to what it actually contains. Remember to look at both the pricing and the list of contents the next time you buy butter. 

It's hard to be a consumer

 English:
In the past, people used to eat all their food cooked at home and it was standard to go to a local butcher to buy meat. People knew exactly what they bought. If you bought ham then you got ham. If you buy ham in a grocery store today and look at the list of contents on the groceries then you will see that the ham doesn't contain just ham, but other unwanted ingredients such as potato starch. An example I have is when we tried to buy cold cuts in a grocery store; it took quite a while before we even found something without any addatives in it. We don't want potato starch, colouring and aromaticum in our cold cuts. We just want good food. Food without additives that has been produced in a fair way are often sold as a luxury product.

The idea with this blog is mainly to keep track of how we spend our money but also share our discoveries and opinions. We want to find good food at a decent price.

Svenska:
Förr i tiden åt man mycket hemlagat och man handlade från t ex den lokala kötthandlaren. Man visste precis vad man köpte. Köpte man skinka så var det skinka. Idag om man köper skinka i affären och kollar på innehållsförteckningen så ser man att den innehåller oönskade ämnen som vi inte borde få i oss. Ett exempel jag har är att vi tänkte köpa pålägg på ICA; Det tog ett bra tag innan vi ens hittade något utan onödiga tillsatser i. Vi vill inte ha potatisstärkelse, färgämnen och aromämnen i vårt pålägg! Vi vill bara ha bra mat. Mat utan tillsatser som har framställts på ett rättvist sätt säljs nu oftast som lyxvara.

Tanken med den här bloggen är först och främst att hålla reda på hur vi spenderar våra pengar men även att dela våra upptäckter och åsikter om ämnet.Vi vill försöka att hitta bra mat till bra priser.