You Could Go to Jail for Selling This Now-Ubiquitous Food

Margarine was once pale pink—and not by accident. In the early 20th century, there was a concerted campaign by dairy lobbyists, the federal government, and Wisconsin (the "Dairy State") to turn consumers against margarine. Their goal was to make the spread as unappealing as possible—so they hatched a plan to give the spread an unappetizing pink hue and fiercely lobbied the government to pass a law that made it illegal to sell non-pink margarine. It briefly worked: For a time, anyone caught selling non-pink margarine could face up to 60 days in jail.

But what had margarine done to deserve such a fate? To understand the spread's rise, fall, and brief Barbie-pink era, we have to go back in time.

The Origins of Margarine

In the 1860s, butter prices were soaring in France: Demand for the dairy product skyrocketed as the country's population rapidly grew and the dairy industry struggled to produce enough milk for butter. In search of a solution, Napoleon III offered a reward to anyone who could create a cheaper butter alternative for his army and the general public. French chemist and food scientist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès swooped in with "oleomargarine," a creamy, whitish-gray emulsion of beef tallow and skim milk, according to Britannica. According to Dr. Joe Schwarcz, the director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society, Mège-Mouriès" submitted his "oleomargarine" recipe and easily won.

Margarine's affordability quickly boosted its popularity across Europe. In 1871, Mège-Mouriès sold the patent to Jurgens, a Dutch company that would eventually become Unilever, paving the way for margarine to enter the mainstream American market, the Britannica entry explains. A few years later, the Oleo Margarine Manufacturing Company was founded in New York. The company, in hopes that margarine would soon become a staple for working-class Americans, quickly expanded, building 37 production plants across the US. (At this point, margarine companies were still using a combination of beef tallow or lard and skim milk. Hydrogenation, the process that turns vegetable oils into a solid product, was not common until the 1910s, and it wasn't until the 1950s that margarine became a plant-based product.) 

Margarine's introduction—and its swift rise in popularity—came at a time when many customers were frustrated with butter's inconsistencies. Typically made in small batches, butter could vary widely in quality depending on the equipment, livestock, and skills of the producer. As historian Gerry Strey noted in a 2001 article for The Wisconsin Magazine of History, “So bad was the overall quality of Wisconsin butter that in Chicago markets, it was known as ‘Western grease,’ and was sold as a lubricant, not for human consumption.” Though margarine offered a more consistent alternative and was becoming widely available, many American consumers were wary of its unappealing pale grayish appearance.

To make margarine more appealing, some producers began adding yellow food dye to mimic the color of butter. With its new sunny yellow hue, the spread was more readily accepted as a consistent and affordable butter substitute. In his dissertation "Bogus Butter: An Analysis of the 1886 Congressional Debates on Oleomargarine Legislation," Chris Burns, a butter historian at the University of Vermont, notes that margarine made such a good alternative that over 60 million pounds of margarine, occasionally called “butterine," were sold fraudulently as butter in 1885.

Big Butter Steps In

The backlash from Big Butter came quickly. In 1886, Congress passed the Oleomargarine Act, which imposed federal taxes and licensing fees on margarine manufacturers. Some states—including Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Ohio—banned margarine completely.

Other states, rather than banning it outright, enacted "pink laws" that required producers to dye margarine an unappealing pink or face a $100 fine or up to 60 days in jail. Some state legislators even proposed coloring the margarine red, brown, or black. These pink laws were immediately effective, stalling margarine sales until the US Supreme Court struck them down in 1898. "Pink is not the color of oleomargarine in its natural state," wrote the Court, noting that no sane customer would purchase such an "unsalable" product. The Court ruled that forcing the coloration of food was unconstitutional, effectively ending the era of pink margarine.

Margarine returned to store shelves as if nothing had happened, and as sales rose again, its rivalry with butter resumed. The conflict reached a peak in 1906, when the federal government passed the Pure Food and Drugs Act, which prohibited the sale of misbranded or adulterated food. Under this law, margarine that mimicked butter now faced legal scrutiny. 

Still, demand for an affordable substitute remained high. To skirt the law, margarine producers began selling uncolored margarine alongside packets of yellow dye, instructing customers to knead the dye in by hand—a process that could take up to 20 minutes.

Surprisingly, some legislation even worked in margarine's favor. For example, some butter producers had been dyeing their products yellow to mimic the rich color of butter from grass-fed cows. Under the same scrutiny applied to margarine, they were forced to change their practices. According to the New York Times, in 1923, Congress passed a law banning additives in butter—especially those that made it more spreadable—making butter less appealing. Meanwhile, margarine was becoming a staple for many Americans, especially during World War I and World War II shortages and the financial hardship of the Great Depression. Recipes from the era, including cakes and butter swim biscuits, often called for margarine.

The Tide Turns

Over time, hostility towards margarine began to fade. In 1950, President Harry Truman signed the Margarine Act, repealing the 1886 law and allowing yellow margarine to return to store shelves alongside butter. A few holdout states, notably Wisconsin, kept restrictions in place. In 1967, as margarine's popularity reached new heights, Wisconsin finally lifted its ban—though it remains illegal there to serve margarine in a restaurant unless specifically requested. 

Over the years, celebrities have appeared in promotional campaigns for the condiment, helping bolster its image: In 1959, Eleanor Roosevelt appeared in a TV ad for Good Luck margarine,  claiming she spread it on her toast. In 1974, at the beginning of mainstream diet culture, Canadian actor Willian Shatner held up a packet of Promise margarine, touting its cholesterol-reducing properties. For a brief moment in the 1980s, when low-fat and low-calorie diets were all the rage, margarine was a staple ingredient for many.

The ingredient, however, fell out of favor in the 1990s and 2000s as more people became aware of the risks of trans fats, which are created by partial hydrogenation—a process that was used in many margarines and spreads. However, margarine continued to fend for itself: In 2006, singer Ozzy Osbourne starred in a bizarre commercial for the company I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, saying he couldn't "tell the difference" between the brand's margarine and actual butter. 

Margarine's Place Today

Today, margarine still has a firm place in the market. "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" is both a household name and one of the top margarine brands in a $4.03 billion global market. Other recognizable margarine brands—such as Flora, Country Crock, Blue Bonnet, and Earth Balance—continue to line supermarket shelves across the country. (Our senior editor Genevieve's parents still keep a tub of Flora in their fridge.) While some of these companies now try to distance themselves from the word margarine, their products maintain the same spirit as Mège-Mouriès's original invention: a ready substitute for butter.

Another bump in margarine's favor came in 2018, when the FDA banned partial hydrogenation in food production in recognition of the danger of trans fats. Manufacturers of margarine and other products that used partially hydrogenated oils were forced to reformulate, and the food went back onto the "good" list for some experts. A 2025 article from the Mayo Clinic, declares, "Margarine often tops butter when it comes to heart health." 

Margarine might not be the first choice of avid home cooks and professional chefs these days, but like David facing Goliath, it has defied seemingly insurmountable odds. It outlasted federal regulations, industry smear campaigns, and even a bizarre mandate to dye it pink. Today, walk into any supermarket and you'll still find that yellow tub sitting confidently beside butter.