catalyst is rendered essentially inactive to produce said sterol ester rich composition as used herein the term u201c sterol u201d includes all phytosterols fungal or animal sterols for example sitosterol campesterol stigmasterol taraxasterol and any derivatives or reduction products of the foregoing the term u201c stanol u201d as used herein means a hydrogenated form of a sterol hence it will be appreciated that hydrogenation modifications as well as modifications of phytosterol compounds to include for example small side chains are also well within the scope of the present invention any phytosterol or phytostanol which can be incorporated into an edible aqueous mixture can be utilized in the present invention in a preferred embodiment the phytosterol or phytostanol is selected from the group consisting of sitosterol sitostanol campesterol campestanol taraxasterol stigmasterol clionastanol brassicastanol and brassicasterol or mixtures thereof commercially available phytosterols are often mixtures of phytosterols that are also appropriate for use according to the present invention the phytosterols which are used in the present invention can be procured from a variety of natural sources phytosterols can be obtained from vegetable oils vegetable oil sludge vegetable oil distillates and other plant oil sources such as tall oils by relatively simple and inexpensive means for example a preparation of sterols from vegetable oil sludge by using solvents such as methanol is taught in u s pat no 4 420 427 further sitosterol can be obtained from cold pressed wheat germ.