The black list

Well this blog is now public and there has been quite a lot of interest and encouragement. To all who have commented and to all who have been inspired to try and avoid palm oil as a result of what I have said and blogged, thank you!

But I haven’t mentioned much in the way of individual products which are good or bad. Is there a list of “banned” products?

Here in the UK, the Independent recently published the following list of top 100 grocery brands, and whether or not they contain palm oil.

1. Coke, Coca-Cola, £969m, NO

2. Warburtons, Warburtons, £709m, YES 

3. Walkers Crisps, Pepsico, £487m, NO

4. Hovis, Premier Foods, £405m, YES

5. Cadbury Dairy Milk, Cadbury, £374m, YES

6. Kingsmill, ABF, £363m, YES

7. Nescafe, Nestle, £352m, NO

8. Andrex, Kimblery-Clark, £345m, NO

9. Lucozade, GlaxoSmithKline, £342m, NO

10. Robinsons, Britvic, £299m, NO

11. Tropicana, Pepsico, £288m, NO

12. McCain’s Chips, McCain, £265m, NO

13. Pepsi Cola, Pepsico, £258m, NO

14. Whiskas, Mars, £233m, NO

15. Lurpak, Lurpak, £228m, NO

16. Muller Corner, Muller, £219m, NO

17. Persil, Unilever, £210m, YES

18. Flora Spreads, Unilever, £200m, YES

19. Heinz Beans, Heinz, £199m, NO

20. Pedigree, Mars, £198m, NO

21. Cathedral City, Dairy Crest, £187m, NO

22. Felix, Nestle, £186m, NO

23. Galaxy, Mars, £185m, YES 

24. Youngs Frozen Fish, Young’s, £184m, YES

25. Kit Kat, Nestle, £183m, YES

26. Heinz Soups, Heinz, £182m, NO

27. Red Bull Drinks, Red Bull, £182m, NO

28. Danone Activia, Danone, £175m, NO

29. Birds Eye Fish, Birds Eye, £175m, NO

30. Bold, Procter & Gamble, £174m, SUSPECTED*

31. Mr Kipling Cakes, Premier Foods, £174m, YES

32. Wrigley’s Extra, Wrigley, £170m, YES

33. Ariel, Procter & Gamble, £157m, SUSPECTED*

34. Pringles, Procter & Gamble, £143m SUSPECTED*

35. Princes Fish, Princes, £136m, NO

36. PG Tips, Unilever, £134m, NO

37. Tetley Tea, Tata, £134m, NO

38. Dolmio Sauces, Mars, £133m, NO

39. Silver Spoon, British Sugar, £132m, NO

40. Birds Eye Poultry, Birds Eye, £130m, YES

41. Maltesers, Mars, £130m, YES

42. John West Fish, John West, £129m NO

43. Cravendale, Arla, £129m, NO

44. Ribena, GlaxoSmithKline, £129m, NO

45. Weetabix, Weetabix, £128m, NO

46. Muller Light, Muller, £127m, NO

47. Mars, Mars, £123m, YES

48. Uncle Ben’s, Rice Mars, £122m, NO

49. Kellogg’s Special K, Kellogg’s, £122m, YES

50. Fanta, Coca-Cola, £118m, NO

51. Finish Dishwasher, Reckitt & Benckiser, £117m, NO

52. Volvic, Danone, £117m, NO

53. Ginsters, Ginsters, £114m, YES

54. Schweppes, Schweppes, £112m, NO

55. Innocent, Innocent, £110m, NO

56. Heinz, Ketchup Heinz, £110m, NO

57. Danone, Actimel Danone, £108m, NO

58. Fairy Laundry, Procter & Gamble, £107m, SUSPECTED*

59. Fairy Liquid, Procter & Gamble, £107m, SUSPECTED*

60. McVitie’s Digestives, United Biscuits, £106m, YES

61. Comfort, Unilever, £106m, YES

62. Bakers, Nestle, £104m, NO

63. Kenco, Kraft, £104m, NO

64. Goodfella’s Pizza, Northern Foods, £101m, YES

65. Birds Eye Veg, Birds Eye, £100m, NO

66. Petit Filous, Yoplait, £100m, NO

67. Velvet, SCA, £99m, NO

68. Dairylea, Kraft, £99m, NO

69. Lenor, Procter & Gamble, £98m, SUSPECTED*

70. Airwick Aircare, Reckitt Benckiser, £96m, NO

71. Evian, Danone, £96m, NO

72. Daz, Procter & Gamble, £95m, SUSPECTED*

73. Irn Bru, AG Barr, £92m, NO

74. Doritos, Pepsico, £90m, NO

75. McCoys, United Biscuits, £90m, YES

76. Anchor Spreads, Arla, £89m, NO

77. Haribo, Haribo, £89m, YES

78. Bisto Gravy, Premier Foods, £89m, YES

79. BM Cooked Meat, Bernard Matthews, £88m, YES

80. Hellmanns, Unilever, £88m, NO

81. Kleenex, Kimberly-Clark, £88m, NO

82. Quality Street, Nestle, £85m, YES

83. Richmond Sausages, Kerry Foods, £84m, YES

84. CrunchyNut Cornflakes, Kellogg’s, £83m, YES

85. Magnum, Unilever, £79m, YES

86. Hula Hoops, United Biscuits, £79m, NO

87. Bessies Potatoes, Heinz, £78m, YES

88. Chicago Town Pizza, Dr Oetker, £77m, YES

89. Capri Sun, Coca-Cola, £77m, NO

90. Sensations, Walkers, £77m, NO

91. Cadbury Cakes, Premier Foods, £76m, YES

92. Young’s Chilled Fish, Young’s, £75m, YES

93. Cadbury Roses, Cadbury, £75m, YES

94. Oasis, Coca-Cola, £75m, NO

95. Yeo Valley Yogurts, Yeo Valley, £73m, NO

96. Pot Noodles, Unilever, £73m, YES

97. Aero, Nestle, £73m, YES

98. Surf, Unilever, £73m, YES

99. Kettle, Kettle, £73m, NO

100. Clover Spreads, Dairy Crest, £72m, YES 

Sources: Sales statistics: AC Nielsen. Palm oil: The Independent

* Procter & Gamble, which uses palm oil in a wide variety of products, will not disclose its use in individual brands

Depressing reading. Some things are just not clear to me, for example: Special K. An easy one for me to talk about because I have been eating it all week. I chose it after carefully looking through all the ingredients in the supermarket. No mention of palm oil, but crucially no mention of vegetable oil or vegetable fat. Even now in hindsight, I can’t see any ingredient there that could possibly represent it.

Similarly Persil and Ariel (both of which I have in the house) show no signs on their ingredient list of palm oil or any vegetable fats. Either we have an issue of labelling being even more ambiguous than I’d feared, or the Independent’s research is wrong (I suspect the former though).

Today, I thought I went palm oil free. It turns out I didn’t because of Special K. An e-mail to Kellogg’s is in order – if I’m confused or worse still deceived about this, then chances are all consumers will be. At least I did something right today – I’ve switched to Weetabix …