Rama has been around in Germany for almost a century – and has become as synonymous with margarine as Tempo is with handkerchiefs. What many people don’t know: Rama hasn’t been margarine at all for around 15 years.
How could that happen? This was triggered by a change in the recipe in 2007, in which the manufacturer (then: Unilever, today: Upfield Holdings) replaced part of the fat with cheap water. The problem with this: In Germany, Streichfett can only be called margarine if the fat content is 80 to less than 90 percent. However, Rama (then: Rama Original) only had a fat content of 70 percent. In addition, high-quality fats were replaced with palm oil.
In 2017 the producer changed the recipe again: Today ” Rama – the classic” just one more Fat content of 60 percent – almost all the rest is water. Officially, this Rama variety can only be called “three-quarter fat margarine”.
Rama also gets his fat off the ingredients: For the 11/2021 issue, ÖKO-TEST tested various types of margarine, Rama only received a “sufficient” here.
However, if you still want to enjoy real margarine – and that in good quality – it is generally not so easy, because not only Rama did anything but well at ÖKO-TEST, many other brands are also not without problems.