Helping you buy responsibly – Palm oil free alternatives

How do I know if a product contains palm oil?

Food Standards Australia and New Zealand allows palm oil to be labelled simply as “vegetable oil” and indeed its presence can be even less visible as many of the more minor components of a product – colourings, flavourings, emulsifiers and humectants – are commonly palm oil derived. A quick test – if the saturated fat content is around 50% the likelihood of the vegetable oil being palm is high.

In cosmetics, palm oil is labelled Elaeis guineensis but as with the food industry, its presence is often less obvious. Any ingredient which includes the word “palm” (palmitate, palmitoyl or simply palm) will include palm oil. Other ingredients which commonly but not always use palm oil include cetyl alcohol, isopropyl, sodium lauryl sulphate, steareths, fatty alcohol sulphates, glycerine, cocoa butter equivalent and cocoa butter substitute.

The Guardian’s Story of Palm Oil provides an informative and interactive description of where palm oil may be found and its impact on orangutan habitat.

How do I make an informed choice?

BOS Australia has put together a list of products which manufacturers tell us are palm oil free or contain segregated certified sustainable palm oil. We have targeted those food categories which are particularly suspect – biscuits, processed foods, chocolates, snacks etc – as well as personal care items.  

Some comments to consider when reviewing the lists:

* 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.

* The list is not an official accreditation of suppliers’ claims as we do not conduct independent product testing. There are heavy penalties for making false claims on packaging so when a supplier claims “No Palm Oil” we take that as an honest and informed claim.

* Nearly all Australian manufacturers contacted informed us that where products did contain palm oil, it was from sustainable sources. Membership of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (www.rspo.org) alone is not a sufficient guarantee of sustainability. RSPO certification is a more demanding standard but we are yet to uncover many Australia producers sourcing certified sustainable palm oil.

* Product specifications can change – please advise us if you suspect palm oil to be in any of the products on our list.

* The list is based on the specification for products sold in Australia. International brands may have different specifications in different countries – for example Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate in the UK does contain palm oil.

* The list is based on a product by product basis rather than at company level. Many of the companies listed manufacture other products that do contain palm oil.

If we haven’t covered the category you’re interested in, Auckland Zoo’s shopping guide 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 CSPO Products

Chocolate

Manufacturer	Brand	Product
Aldi Stores	Choceur, Just Organics	Chocolate blocks
	Moser-Roth	Chocolate bars
Cadbury’s	Cadbury Dairy Milk	Chocolate blocks – Dairy Milk, Old Gold, Dream
Cadbury’s	Green & Black’s	Chocolate blocks (except Butterscotch; Raisin; Hazelnut)
Chocolate Mill	Chocolate Mill	Chocolate blocks, bars and filled chocolates. www.chocmill.com.au
Chokolit	Chokolit	Chocolate blocks*
Divine Chocolate	Divine	Chocolate blocks and bars. Stockists can be found via http://search.fairtrade.com.au/brand/divine
Haigh’s Chocolates	Haigh’s	All chocolate products
Koko Black	Koko Black	Chocolate products
Lighthouse Ventures	Scarborough Fair Trade	Chocolate blocks
Lindt  Sprungli	Lindt Excellence; Lindt Creation	Chocolate blocks (Note that filled products such as Lindor do contain palm oil)
Melrose Health	Kaoka	Organic chocolate range
Nestle  	Nestle	Club Chocolate blocks palm oil free; Other Nestle chocolate bars and blocks, Allens lollies containing chocolate (Fantales, Freckles, Jaffas) and Nestle and Plaistowe cooking chocolate manufactured in Australia use segregated CSPO
Organic Trader Pty Ltd	Cocolo	Chocolate blocks
Plamil	Plamil Premium Organic	Chocolate blocks
Robern Menz	Menz	Products using CSPO: Honeycomb, Choccy Snakes, Choccy Froggies, Choccy Milk Bottles, Choccy Bananas
Sweet William	Sweet William	Chocolate blocks and bars (Note that cooking chocolate chips and spread do contain palm oil)
Vitality Brands	Well, Naturally	Chocolate bars. Cherry Delight flavour contains CSPO mass balance palm oil
Vitarium	Vitarium	Drinking chocolate & other beverages
Wesfarmers Ltd	Coles	Products using CSPO: Chocolate share packs – Light & Whippy, Caramel Mighty, Nutty Nougat, Crunchy Caramel Stix, Wafer Breaks;
Wesfarmers Ltd	Smart Buy	Products using CSPO: Choc Honeycomb and Cooking Chocolate blocks
Whittaker’s	Whittaker’s	All chocolate products

 

* 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

Manufacturer  	Brand	Product
ABE’S Real Food Company	ABE’S	Bagel crisps
Aldi Stores	Damora	Hi Fibre 97% fat free crispbread; 98% fat free crispbread; Rice crackers; Vitagrain; Thin rice cakes; Thin rice and corn cakes
	Specially Selected	Twists
Campbell Soup Company	Arnotts	Australian products use 100% segregated, certified sustainable & traceable palm oil
Coreco Fine Foods	Biofood Organic	Melba Toast
Crispbic Australia	Crispbic	Flatbics
Delba	Cocktail Rounds	Pumpernickel bread
George Weston Foods	Ryvita	Crispbread
Griffins Foods Ltd	Huntley Palmer	Quartets, Litebread, Wafer thins
Hampden Trading Pty Ltd	Artisse	Organic original rice crackers
Manassen Foods Australia	Burns & Ricker (Nonni’s)	Bagel crisps; Pita crisps
	Carr’s Melts	Wheaten biscuits (Cheese flavour)
	Kavli	Crispbread
	Kurrajong Kitchens	Lavosh crackerbread
	Van der Meulen	Melba toast
National Foods (NZ) Ltd	South Cape	Crispbread
Pepsico	Sakata	Rice crackers
Real Foods	Corn Thins	Corn cakes
Ricegrowers Ltd	SunRice	Rice cakes; Corn cakes
Riviana Foods	Always Fresh	Grissini Italian breadsticks; Crustini bruschetta toasts; Wafer crispbread
Roccas Fine Foods	RoccasDeli	Mini Flatbreads; Baker chips; Gourmet crackers
Snowy Mountain Cookies	Snowy Mountain Cookies	All savoury flavours (www.snowycookies.com.au)
Trentham Tucker	Trentham Tucker	Lavosh poppy & sesame seed crispbread
Tucker’s Natural	Tucker’s  	Gourmet crackers; Multifibre snacks
Vita Vigor	Vita Vigor	Grissini breadsticks, Happy Vi
Waterwheel Industries	Waterthins	Bagelettes; Cheese twists; Fine wafers; Flatbread crackers; Savoury straws
Woolworths Ltd	Select	Multigrain wheat crispbread; Sea salt crackers; Brown rice crackers (sea salt)

 

Snack Foods

Manufacturer	Brand	Product
Aldi Stores	Blackstone	Potato chips
C.A.L. Marketing Pty	Snappy	Soy crisps
Partner Foods	Chic Nuts	Chickpea snacks (lightly salted; spicy tomato)
Potatomagic Pty Ltd	Sultry Sally	Potato chips (sea salt; cheese & onion)
R W Garcia	R W Garcia	Organic corn tortilla chips (white, soy & flaxseed, blue corn, spicy)
Simply 7 Snacks	Simply 7	Lentil chips Sea Salt
Smiths Snackfood Co	Red Rock Deli	Potato chips with sea salt
	Smiths Chips	All potato chips
SnackBrands Australia	Kettle	Original salted kettle chips (other variants have small quantities of palm oil derivatives in flavouring); Sweet potato, beetroot and white potato vegetable chips
	Thins	Popped (original, salted)
Tixana Pty Ltd	Piranha	Golden hash potato grills
Unisnack	Pitos	Pita chips
Vege Chip Company	Ajitas	Vege chips
Wesfarmers Ltd	Coles	Products using CSPO: Simply Gluten Free corn chips, ancient grain chips, mixed root vegetable chips
Woolworths Ltd	Select	Light potato chips; Oven baked pretzel twists; Deli-style sea salt chips
	Macro	Gluten free Original potato chips
Zed Snack Food	Dip Stix	Soy snack sticks

 

Sweet Biscuits

Manufacturer	Brand	Product
Addiction Food	Addiction Food	Brownies, bars and balls. For stockists www.addictionfood.com.au (NSW only)
Aldi Stores	Parkwood	Butter shortbread
Botany International Food	Jules Destrooper	Almond Thins
Campbell Soup Co	Arnotts	Australian products use 100% segregated, certified sustainable and traceable palm oil
Eastern Pacific Foods	Borland’s	Plain macadamia shortbread
Farmhouse Pantry	Farmhouse Pantry	All biscuits (http://farmhousepantry.vpweb.com.au)
Gateaux Bonne Maman	Bonne Maman	Butter cookies; Tartlets (lemon & raspberry)
Goodman Fielder	Paradise Cottage Cookies	Vive Lites
Hampden Trading Pty Ltd	Artisse	Dark chocolate crepes*
Ital	Ital	Almond toscani
Kez’s Kitchen	Kez’s Indulgences	Almond/apricot/date bread; Melting moments
LU	Le Petit Ecolier	Butter biscuit
Manassen Foods Australia	Walkers	Shortbread biscuits; Wheat’n’Oat organic biscuits
Snowy Mountain Cookies	Snowy Mountain Cookies	All cookie flavours (www.snowycookies.com.au)
The Old Colonial Cookie Co	Butterfingers	Pure butter shortbread
Unibic	Unibic	Aniseed cake, Biscotti, Savoiardi sponge fingers; Shortbread fingers
	Weight Watchers	Butternut cookies; Raspberry tartlets
Woolworths	Macro	Shortbread

 

* 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

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.

 

Manufacturer	Brand	Product
HJ Heinz Australia	Weightwatchers	Thai chicken yellow curry; Beef burgundy; Beef cannelloni; Vegetable lasagne; Chicken fettucine; Chicken pesto spaghettini; Satay chicken; Seafood risotto; Thai fish fillets; Chicken penne; Sweet & sour chicken
Nestle Australia	Lean Cuisine	Satay beef with rice; Creamy dill & salmon pasta; Vegetable cannelloni; Pumpkin, spinach & ricotta lasagne; Lean beef lasagne; Satay chicken noodles; Beef with vegetables in cracked pepper sauce; Indian style butter chicken; Beef in red wine sauce with garlic mash; Chicken & vegetable risotto; Honey mustard chicken with rice; Thai prawn curry with rice
	Maggi	Mediterranean Goodness Beef lasagne; Macaroni cheese World Flavours Caribbean mango prawns with rice and corn
Sanitarium	Vegie Delights	Chilled and Frozen vegetarian range
Select Brands Pty Ltd	Michelina’s	Beef ravioli
Simplot Australia	Birds Eye	All frozen fish products

 

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.

Manufacturer	Brand	Product
Bartter Steggles	Steggles	Tempura style nuggets; Dinosnack shapes
Borgcraft Pty Ltd	Borgs	Butter puff pastry
CM Antoniou Pty Ltd	Antoniou	Chilled fillo pastry
Careme	Careme	All pastries.
Goodman Fielder	Pampas	Butter puff pastry
Kylie (Australia) Pty Ltd	Pacific West	Seafood dumplings; vege buns; Prawn Hargow; spinach dumplings; Prawn Shao Mai; mushroom dumplings
Makmur Enterprises	Golden Wok	Dim sims
Marathon Foods	Marathon	Dim sim range; Beef & chicken bites; Spring roll range
Wesfarmers Ltd	You’ll Love Coles	Mini dim sims

 

Frozen chips & wedges

 

Manufacturer	Brand	Product
McCain Foods (Aust) Pty Ltd	McCain	All Aust & NZ Conventional Fries
Simplot Australia	Birds Eye	Golden crunch chips & wedges; Hash browns & potato gems; Oven bake chips & wedges; Oven roast potatoes
Weightwatchers International	Weightwatchers	Oven chips; Crunchy oven 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:

Manufacturer	Brand	Product
Ambrosia	Ambrosia	Honey; peanut butter
Arla Foods	Harmonie, Lurpak	Organic spreadable; spreadable butter
Ceres Enterprises Ltd	Ceres Organic	Organic Peanut butter (Crunchy & Smooth), Almond Butter
Devondale	Devondale	Dairy soft & Dairy soft salt reduced
Fonterra	Mainland   	Butter Soft
Hansells Food Group	Alfa One Rice Bran Oil	Spread
Mayvers	Original Super spread	Nut butter
Melrose Health	Melrose Naturals	100% Cashew; 100% Almond; Hazelnut; Almond, Brazil & Cashew
        “  	Melrose	Nut spreads
        “	Melrose Omega Care	Table spreads
Pic’s Really Good Peanut Butter	Pic’s Really Good Peanut Butter	Peanut butter. Click herefor Australian stockists
Ridiculously Delicious Peanut Butter Company	Ridiculously Delicious Peanut Butter	Peanut Butter. Click here for Australian stockists
Sanitarium	Sanitarium	All peanut butters & marmite
Sunburst	Nuttelex with Coconut Oil	Table spread
Trialia Foods	Eskal Freenut Butter	Smooth and crunchy peanut butter

 

Instant noodles

 

Manufacturer	Brand	Product
Clahym	Just Egg Noodles	Instant noodles

 

Cereals

 

Sanitarium

Manufacturer	Brand	Product
Be Natural Cereals	Be Natural	Five whole grain flakes range
Carman’s Fine Foods	Carman’s	All muesli products and rolled oats
Green’s General Foods	Lowan	Muesli range
Health Brands Australia	Abundant Earth	Organic bircher muesli; puffed rice, corn, millet, kamut
Kelloggs  	Kelloggs	All Bran; Coco pops; Crispix; Crunchy Nut (except Clusters); Frosties; Guardian; Nutri-Grain; Rice Bubbles; Special K; Sultana Bran (except Crunch); Sustain
Nestle	Uncle Tobys	All Uncle Tobys’ cereals
Popina Food Services	Arnold’s Farm	Toasted Muesli
Sanitarium	(Weetbix, Crunchy Bites, Granola Oat Clusters, Skippy Cornflakes, Honey Weets, Puffed Wheat, LIght ‘n Tasty, Up & Go)
Table of Plenty	Table of Plenty	Muesli (velvety vanilla, honey spiced)

Dried Fruit

Manufacturer	Brand	Product
Angas Park	Angas Park	All dried fruit except dates
Fruit for Life	Fruit for Life	All products
Mother Earth	Mother Earth	Deluxe mix – superfruits, cranberry
Ocean Spray	Ocean Spray	Craisins
Scalzo Food Industries	Freshlife	All dried fruit products and banana chips
Sunbeam	Sunbeam	Natural sultanas
Sunsweet	Sunsweet	Prunes, dried mango
Wesfarmers	Coles	Pitted dates, pitted prunes, mixed dried fruit, sultanas, currants
	Coles Smart Buy	Mixed dried fruit

Ice Cream

Manufacturer	Brand	Product
Golden North Ice Cream	Golden North Ice Cream	Ice cream – available mainly in South Australia
Sanitarium	So Good Frozen Dessert	Soy based ice cream alternative

 

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).  A list of Woolworths own brand products produced with CSPO can be found on its website

Coles lists its private brand products which are either palm oil free or contain certified sustainable palm oil on its website. It has begun purchasing GreenPalm certificates to offset its palm oil use and has committed to move to CSPO in all Coles branded products by 2015. Coles is an RSPO member.

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.

Please note that a number of brands previously listed have been removed from the list following information received from an industry participant and subsequent inquiries by Palm Oil Investigations. We had previously assumed that various coco- derivatives (eg coco-betaine) were purely coconut based but it appears that these too may contain a palm oil base. We understand that this may also apply to oleo- derivatives.

Soaps / shampoos / beauty products / toiletries

 

Manufacturer	Product	Website / Retail outlets
Adorius	Includes a range of palm oil free soap	www.adorius.com.au
Adorn Cosmetics	Skincare, cosmetics, lipstick	www.adorncosmetics.com.au
Alchemist’s Grove	Soap	www.alchemistsgrove.com.au
Alex’s Handcrafted Soaps	Soap, shampoo bars, bath products	www.handcraftedsoaps.com.au
Aromatic Essentials	Soaps and creams, dog soap