This week marks a milestone in food history; on July 15, 1869, the French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès received patent number 86489 for margarine.
His invention was the result of a contest launched by Emperor Napoleon III, who wanted to find an inexpensive, alternate food product for the butter used by his Navy. Mège-Mouriès won that contest with a spread made with tallow, which satisfied Napoleon, but not the general public. In 1872, however, the pharmaceutical chemists Théophile-Jules Pelouze and Félix Henri Boudet improved on the patent to create an emulsification with skimmed milk, which proved to be a commercial success.
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