MADISON, Wis. -- Typically, margarine is high in trans fat.

And with the negative attention on trans fat, you're seeing more and more spreads that are trans fat free.

Consumer Reports recently taste-tested 13 of the top-selling trans fat free spreads to see how they measure up to butter and regular margarine. Trained taste-testers evaluated flavor, texture, nutrition and price.

First, the spreads were tasted plain to evaluate subtle differences in flavors and texture. Next, the spreads were put on bread, then toast to assess the taste and how well they spread.

Most of the spreads didn't have much of a dairy flavor and had a fatty waxy feel in the mouth.

Two of the spreads, Take Control and Benecol, have ingredients which studies have shown can reduce cholesterol. But the taste was nothing special, according to testers, and they also cost at least three times as much as the others per serving.

If you read labels closely, according to Consumer Reports, you'll see there's partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, like soybean oil, in almost all of the spreads. That signals trans fat. So why are the spreads labeled trans fat free?

Government regulations allow a product to be labeled trans fat free if it contains less than half a gram of trans fat per serving.

After the testing, experts rated Smart Balance the tastiest of all the trans fat free spreads. They said it tastes and feels the most like butter.