Some U.S. states had laws requiring margarine to be dyed pink.

Spreading margarine

Margarine developed an unsavory reputation very quickly after it first arrived in North America from Europe in the 1870s. Both the dairy lobby and popular media maligned the butter substitute (then made from surplus animal fats), claiming that it was unhealthy, prepared under unsatisfactory conditions, and full of harmful chemicals. Twenty states regulated margarine’s labeling, and seven more banned it outright before Congress stepped in and passed the 1886 Oleomargarine Act, which, among other things, heavily taxed the manufacture and sale of margarine. Retailers tried to get around the law by selling margarine as butter, which only intensified the anti-margarine crusade.

To make the difference between margarine and butter more obvious, 32 states passed legislation regulating the color of margarine. Most of those states banned the color yellow, but at least five states (Minnesota, South Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia) went a step further and required that margarine be dyed pink to highlight its artificiality. The Supreme Court struck down pink margarine requirements as unconstitutional in 1898, but bans on yellow margarine remained in effect. In 1902, Congress even amended the Oleomargarine Act to increase taxes on artificially colored yellow margarine. But when the price of butter skyrocketed in the 1940s, public opinion shifted. The Oleomargarine Act was repealed in 1950, and state regulations started to follow suit. The last bans on yellow margarine were in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and both were repealed by 1967.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

Quebec banned yellow margarine until 2008.

The United States’ fraught relationship with margarine paled in comparison to Canada’s reaction. The entire country banned margarine entirely from 1886 to 1948, allowing it only for a brief window during World War I butter shortages. After that, margarine laws were up to the provinces, and Quebec was among the most strict; margarine wasn’t allowed at all until 1967. In 1987 — after most of North America was pretty much over the anti-margarine campaign — the province banned colored margarine. In 1997, the Unilever consumer goods culture decided to import 480 containers of margarine from the U.S. to Quebec to challenge the law. A legal battle dragged on until 2005, and while the yellow ban was upheld at the time, the provincial cabinet finally repealed it in 2008.