Helping you buy responsibly – Palm oil free alternatives

We often receive inquiries from concerned individuals asking what they can do to in the battle to save the orangutan. Many have heard about palm oil and don’t want to be complicit in fuelling demand for the product which is decimating the orangutan’s habitat.

However it is not always easy to identify products with palm oil. Under Food Standards Australia New Zealand requirements, it is sufficient to have vegetable oil in the list of ingredients on the packet, even though the product contains palm oil. As a rule of thumb, if the saturated fat content is about 50%, there is a good chance that the vegetable oil will in fact be palm oil.

Another thing to watch out for on the ingredients list is margarine.  If the product contains margarine, it is highly likely that the margarine will have been derived from palm oil.

Additives and agents such as emulsifiers (E471 is a common one), while a small component of the overall product, can also be derived from palm oil.

Other names to keep an eye out for that could be or be derived from palm oil are cocoa butter equivalent (CBE), cocoa butter substitute (CBS), palm olein and palm stearine. In non-food products like soaps and detergents, the list includes elaeis guineensis, sodium lauryl sulphate, cetyl alcohol, stearic acid, isopropyl and other palmitates, steareth-2, steareth-20 and fatty alcohol sulphates – all of which may be derived from palm oil.

So how do you make an informed choice?

We thought we’d help the process by building a list of products which don’t contain palm oil.  We targeted those food categories which are particularly suspect – biscuits, processed foods, chocolates, snacks etc.  We’ll be adding categories and products as the information becomes available. The file is available in pdf format at the end of this article.

Some comments to consider when reviewing the list:
* The list is not all inclusive and there may well be other products in the categories covered which are palm oil free – if you know of any, please send details through to us at palmoil@orangutans.com.au
* Where labelling is not definitive, we have attempted to confirm the information in this list through letters from our supporters to the manufacturers.
* Nearly all Australian manufacturers contacted informed us that where products did contain palm oil, it was from sustainable sources. This is a good start, but the effectiveness of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (www.rspo.org) is yet to be proven.
* Product specifications can change – the information in this list is believed to be correct at the time of publication.
* This list is designed to comment on the use of palm oil only. It does not purport to cover health and other ethics issues which may also influence a consumer’s buying decision.

If we haven't covered the category you're interested in, the shopping guide from Auckland Zoo may provide a starting point. There are many familiar brand and product names although you should check the label in case formulations are different between the two countries.

Palm Oil Free Products

Chocolate

* Unfortunately Chokolit is only available in the UK at this stage but this is a truly inspirational story. Louis, who founded the company at the age of 12, asked to be included on our list to show that someone is trying to make a change in the UK too. Chokolit directly supports various animal conservation groups including the Sumatran Orangutan Society. To read more about the company, visit www.chokolit.co.uk

Dry biscuits

 Snack Foods

Sweet Biscuits

* Dark chocolate crepes contain no palm oil. Hampden Trading Pty Ltd has confirmed that any palm oil used in its other Artisse products is sourced from environmentally sustainable palm plantations in South America. 

Arnotts (Australia and NZ) is targeting the use of 100% certified sustainable palm oil, if available, by 2015 and claims to be shifting around 20% of supply each year towards this.

Frozen meals & fish

McCain Foods has informed us that it does not use palm oil in its frozen dinners.

Nestle (Lean Cuisine, Maggi) has indicated that palm oil is not an ingredient in the majority of its frozen meals but has not been able to be more specific. We've put together a list of those products which don't have vegetable oil listed as an ingredient - not a guarantee but the best we can do with the information we have.

Frozen snacks / pies / pizzas / pastry

Nearly all frozen pastry contains palm oil as it is made using margarine or vegetable oil. However we have found a chilled filo pastry and a limited number of other puff and shortcrust pastry products that contain no palm oil and are listed below.

Most pizza products we looked at contained vegetable oil and in many cases E471 as an emulsifier.  McCain has responded that palm oil is not used in the preparation of its pizzas so we assume that the vegetable oil listed as an ingredient in its products is not palm oil.

Steggles has informed us that it uses cottonseed and canola as its frying and general food oil. While not specified in its formulations, Steggles advises that its suppliers may use emulsifiers including E471 at very low levels which don’t require labelling.

Frozen chips & wedges 

Margarines, spreads & peanut butter

Goodman Fielder and Unilever, the two major producers of spreads in Australia, have confirmed that all their spreads contain a percentage of palm oil. Fonterra has also confirmed that its Western Star spread range may contain palm oil.

Nuttelex's main ingredient is sunflower oil but it does also contain a small amount of palm oil. Similarly, Alfa rice bran spread uses rice bran oil but the emulsifier contains palm oil as a carrier.

Some peanut butters appear to contain palm oil. Apparently the peanut oil is extracted to sell separately and replaced in the peanut butter by cheaper palm oil. We have however confirmed that the Sanitarium range of products uses rapeseed oil or 100% peanuts as does Ceres Organic and Melrose Health spreads.

 So, it's back to butter or the following products which we believe are palm oil free:

Instant noodles 

Cereals

Dried Fruit

 Ice Cream

Baby Formula

Heinz has reformulated its range of infant formulas (Heinz Nuture Gold Starter, Starter, Gold Follow-on, Follow-on), removing palm oil from these products.

Retailer Housebrands

Woolworths Ltd released a Sustainable Palm Oil Action Plan in March 2010 whereby the company commits to moving to certified sustainable palm oil from RSPO members by 2015 for all Woolworths private label products (Select and Homebrand). It has also committed to on-pack labelling of palm oil and derivatives for all these products (where oil is a listed ingredient ie excludes trace oils potentially present in emulsifiers etc). It is also applying to become a member of the RSPO.

Coles has informed us that it does not have a list available of the “You’ll Love Coles” or “$martBuy” products that are palm oil free. Its housebrand standards demand that the used of palm oil is in line with RSPO principles and it is Coles’ intention to move towards declaring palm oil in its labelling.

Non-food products

Finding soap without palm oil in supermarkets is difficult. However, we have been alerted to a number of online suppliers who produce a palm oil free product as well as shampoo and moisturiser products. Visit their sites for the full range.

Lush has removed palm oil from the base of its soaps but other products may still contain small quantities. The company continues to work towards removing palm oil from all its products.

Soaps / shampoos / beauty products / toiletries

* shampoos and conditioners free of glycerine include green tea clarifying shampoo, white camellia ultra-smoothing conditioner, honeysuckle rose moisturising conditioner, swimmer's normalising conditioner, GPB glycogen protein balancing shampoo and conditioner, primrose & lavender scalp-soothing shampoo, rosa mosqueta nourishing conditioner and shampoo, white camellia ultra-smoothing conditioner, blue camomile hydrating shampoo. 

** based in UK but will ship to Australia

*** sodium palmate used in calendula, iris, rosemary and rose soap sourced from Guyana and Colombia. All other products palm oil free

Laundry & Kitchen Products

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