Butter is beaten cream, that is primarily comprised of the fat globules from the top part of the cream skimmed from milk usually from cow’s, most butter is all natural and some has salt added.

While others are salt free, butter must be refrigerated and it can be kept in the freezer to store it longer

Margarine is a man made invention consisting mostly of hydrogenated vegetables or animal fat oils, colouring agents and flavouring added,The colouring agents and flavouring might or might not be natural.

Margarine tends to separate when it’s been frozen and then thawed, so it doesn’t keep as long as butter But it  can be melted and refrigerated again without losing much of its consistency.

Unless someone’s palate is particularly discerning when cooking or baking there might be no noticeable difference in flavour or consistency when butter or margarine is used in a recipe, with the exception being items like butter cookies which rely heavily on the cream aspect of butter.

When cooking in a frying pan, margarine tends to separate the oil and water content and loses a little flavour, so butter stands up better when frying

Butter has 52 grams of saturated fat per 100 grams.

Dairy spreads have 19 to 35 grams of saturated fat per 100 grams.

Margarine and spreads labelled as polyunsaturated or monounsaturated have saturated fat levels  that may be as low as 11grams per 100grams.

Cooking margarine have 35grams of saturated fat per 100grams.