Quebec Will Make Yellow Margarine Legal

by Rob Walker | July 9, 2008 at 12:15 pm

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It's a product that has been banned for sale in Quebec for over 20 years. Stores have faced stiff fines, and a few years ago there was even a raid on a Wal-Mart who was selling the stuff.

But now, at long last, Quebecers will be able to enjoy...

Yellow Margarine.

Yes, it's true. In 1971, the Quebec Cabinet passed a law making it illegal to make margarine look yellow using food colouring. (If you aren't aware, 'untreated' margarine looks white, not yellow/beige). The fear was that the butter industry would suffer from the supposedly more-healthy margarine if they looked too similar.

Yellow margarine may soon be allowed in Quebec grocery stores after the province's cabinet quietly agreed to change a 21-year old law that forbids any coloured form of the oily spread to be sold in La Belle Province.
In late June, the Quebec Cabinet agreed to repeal a provincial law that prevented margarine makers in the province from adding yellow colour to their product.

The decision could open the door for margarine producers to tint their products yellow, a longstanding practice in most parts of the world and in the rest of Canada.

Raids turn up 72 tubs. Inspectors descend on four Wal-Marts in Quebec City area
Agriculture Department inspectors swooped down on four Wal-Mart stores in the Quebec City area yesterday and seized 72 plastic tubs of yellow Becel margarine with an estimated street value of $179.28.