Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès

…invented by the French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès, who in 1869 won a prize offered by Napoleon III for a satisfactory butter substitute. The modern hydrogenation process had its origin in research in the late 19th century that led to the establishment of the vegetable-oil-shortening industry and a variety of industrial…

Mège-Mouriès developed margarine in the late 1860s and was given recognition in Europe and a patent in the United States in 1873. His manufacturing method was simplified in the United States into a process in which the melted fat blend was churned with milk and…