Why doesn't margarine spread anymore?

[Spinnymop]

I know margarine is the devil's jizz but I'm poor and it's either that or lard.

Everytime I go to spread margarine on a piece of bread or toast, instead of sticking to the knife it glides across the surface then plops off the end of the bread onto the plate. It then can't be picked up for love nor money and I end up in a sticky, oily mess. Wtf Utterly Butterly?

What a timely thread.

We've used Flora Buttery for years but a little while ago we felt it had changed.
No more butteriness sinking into toast, always falling off the knife and , when spreading onto bread, it slides off.

I googled Flora and discovered that the whole range went vegan . It was announced in October.

I looked at the ingredients and saw that it contained palm oil.

Since then we've tried other spreads . They are a mix of butter and rapeseed oil which is healthy enough but still spread badly and don't seem to sink in to toast or crumpets.

I am very disappointed and so we are working our way through spreads.

Butter is preferred here but at this time of year it's tricky to spread on bread.

Yes, we've noticed too.

I've reverted to butter. Even kept out of the fridge it's not very spreadable, but it stays on the bread and tastes better.

Almost dairy free DD1 has olive and salt instead of butter or spread.

Olive oil and salt, not just an olive!

The new flora buttery doesn’t contain palm oil. It was vegan for years, then went non vegan, now vegan again but very different from the original vegan recipe.

I usually keep a tub of margarine in the fridge for baking, but have noticed a change recently. When rubbed into flour (to make pastry, cookies or crumble, for instance) the last few brands I tried, came out weirdly rubbery and stretchy and made a cardboard like texture rather than the usual shortness which our margarine used to achieve last year. Puzzled...

I’ve noticed this too!

Clover is now the same too OP

Anchor Spreadable is the same. I thought it was just me! I keep dropping it between tub and toast, so annoying.

I have used Flora Light for years (the blue one) but very recently the recipe has changed and it just sits on top of toast without melting. I use it in cakes and hasn’t made much of a difference to them but some new ingredient is sadly preventing it melting. So frustrating ☹️

I think they’ve taken the palm oil out of it and replaced with coconut.

So what’s a good one to use? Any recommendations?

We’ve currently got the Aldi clover dupe and it spreads far more easily than the clover we had before this.

For sandwiches we use Lurpak spreadable and it’s fine, doesn’t tend to fall off the knife and melts nicely into toast/crumpets/warm fresh bread. Occasionally I’ll use mayonnaise or a cheese triangle if making sandwiches and I’m out of spreadable butter
For cooking (and if we run out of Lurpak) we use West Country butter with sea salt crystals - usually Tesco or Asda premium brands depending on where we shop; Lidl’s black wrapper one is very similar. They’re all a reasonable price too at under £2.50 for 250g pack.

I stopped using any sort of margarine about 25 years ago when I realised how close it is in formula to the plastic tub it comes in 🤣🤣

Omg I'm so glad it's not just me that is having this issue

Yep same here. Thought I was going mad! Why are ALL the margarines changing?

I was saying this to my husband this morning while making my kids sandwiches. I think it was the light version of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. All just sticking to the knife.

Naturli from Waitrose and Sainsbury’s is really nice and I find it spreads well (the tub not the block) it is pricey though so I wait for deals to buy it.

We’ve gone back to proper butter, DD has flora light but it’s vile, I’m at hers with a poorly Grandson today and did myself toast, couldn’t finish it 🤢
They’ve also changed Roberts bread, used to be our favourite and it kept so well but now it’s just weird in taste and texture.

Warburtons ‘toastie’ is anything but, it’s like old style ‘medium’ bread now 😡

....ans don't mention chocolate! I'm glad Caramac has gone as it tastes revolting these days, and Hotel Chocolat bought out by Mars!!

Am I right that this is all down to the cost of living?

Recently changed back to butter too as found the same issue with marg.

Morrisons Spreadable with Real Butter 450g £1.97
vs
Lurpak Slightly Salted Spreadable 400g £3.75
Both contain 64% buttermilk - easy win for the Morrisons version, more grams for less money!

Plus, £1.97 for the real butter one is definitley not bad when a Flora/Clover margarine is around £1.75 now.