Rendered from whale blubber — the animals belonging to the order Cetacea — these oils are mixtures of wax esters and triacylglycerols. They were once major commodities — margarine manufacture, soap, and lamp oil were leading uses, and the sperm whale’s head oil, spermaceti, was prized as a lubricant — before petroleum and vegetable oils displaced them. Food use has effectively disappeared along with commercial whaling, shifting consumer expectations, and the arrival of cheap, consistent vegetable oils. Modern margarine is built entirely on plant and fish oils instead, leaving whale oil as a historical footnote in food technology and a reminder of how completely a raw-material base can change.