patented the hydrogenation of liquid oils in 1902
Nobel Prize laureate Paul Sabatier worked in the late 1890s to develop the chemistry of hydrogenation. In 1909,
Procter & Gamble acquired the United States rights to the Normann patent; in 1911, they began marketing the first hydrogenated
shortening,
Crisco (composed largely of partially hydrogenated
cottonseed oil). Further success came from the marketing technique of giving away free cookbooks in which every recipe called for Crisco. Before 1910, dietary fats in industrialized nations consisted mostly of
butterfat, beef
tallow, and
lard. During Napoleon's reign in France in the early 19th century, a type of margarine was invented to feed troops using tallow and buttermilk. Soybeans began to be imported into the U.S. as a source of protein in the early 20th century, resulting in an abundance of soybean oil as a by-product that could be turned into a solid fat, thereby addressing a shortage of butterfat. With the advent of refrigeration, margarines based on hydrogenated fats presented the advantage that, unlike butter, they could be taken out of a refrigerator and immediately spread on bread. Some minor changes to the chemical composition of hydrogenated fats yielded superior baking properties compared to lard. As a result of these factors, margarine made from partially hydrogenated soybean oil began to replace butterfat. Partially hydrogenated fat such as Crisco and
Spry, sold in England, began to replace butter and lard in baking bread, pies, cookies, and cakes in 1920. Production of partially hydrogenated fats increased steadily in the 20th century as processed vegetable fats replaced animal fats in the U.S. and other Western countries. At first, the argument was a financial one due to the lower costs of margarines and shortenings compared to lard and butter, particularly for restaurants and manufacturers. However, during the 1980s regulators, physicians, nutritionists, popular health media, educational curricula and cookbooks began to promote diets low in saturated fats for health reasons. Advocacy groups in the U.S. responded by demanding the replacement of saturated animal and tropical fats with vegetable alternatives. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) campaigned vigorously against the use of saturated fats by corporations, including fast-food restaurants, endorsing trans fats as a healthier alternative. The
National Heart Savers Association took out full page ads in major newspapers, attacking the use of
beef tallow in
McDonald's French fries. They urged multinational fast-food restaurants and food manufacturers to switch to vegetable oils, and almost all targeted firms responded by replacing saturated fats with trans fats. Since then the food industry has moved away from partially hydrogenated fats in response to the health concerns about trans fats, labeling requirements, and removal of trans fats from permitted food additives. They have been replaced with fully hydrogenated fats, vegetable oils that are naturally higher in saturated fat and therefore more solid at room temperature, such as
palm oil and
coconut oil, and
interesterified fats, which cannot result in the formation of trans fats. ==Issues==