Celebrity chef James Martin calls for ‘dreadful’ margarine ‘to be banned’ over health reasons

James Martin has called for margarine to be banned amid health concerns. The celebrity chef, 50, called the staple cooking ingredient “horrendous” and “two elements away from plastic” and has called for it to be excluded from shops altogether.

In a recent interview with The Sunday Post, the former Saturday Kitchen host said people are not aware of the “hidden” ingredients in margarine. He said: “Margarine should be banned. It’s dreadful, dreadful stuff.”

He added: “It’s two elements away from plastic, it’s horrendous stuff. It’s the ready-made food, it’s the packet food, the hidden salt, hidden fat. That’s the problem in this country.”

Revealing that he prefers full-fat milk, butter and cream since he is a “farmer’s kid”, he said there was no semi-skimmed milk in his house growing up.

He said: “That’s the problem in this country. It’s not the butter in a butter block or butter you put on your toast.”

Martin, who moved to ITV from BBC’s Saturday Kitchen after a decade hosting the show, also recalled his attempt at making his own packed lunches when he was young. He said: “I’d have buttered white sliced bread and mashed-up banana with a Cadbury Flake on it, press it down, wrap it in cling film.

“Then you get to lunchtime and it would sort of look - when it was out the cling film - almost like a tennis ball. It would be all congealed together.

“But you managed to eat it. Nobody wanted to swap with me, but it was proper.”

Martin has now released his own cookbook titled Butter, which contains 130 recipes in which he celebrates the “world’s greatest ingredient.”