I can’t believe it’s not palm oil …
Another week’s shopping done and the same problems of choice, but this time a new and difficult one: margarine. Now I know that margarine is just fat, so, manufacturers, please don’t tell me in the ingredients it just contains vegetable oils/fats …
Let’s look at the main sellers in the UK
Bertolli (the olive oil based one)
I can’t believe it’s not butter (the one that’s supposed to be like butter)
Flora (the sunflower one)
It turns out all three are Unilever – the world’s biggest palm oil user. Back home now, I can’t remember the ingredients mentioned on each of these three margarines. None mentioned palm oil, but all mentioned vegetable oils/fats.
Look at the Sainsbury’s alternatives. The branding suggests that they are a definite copy of the three above brands, as the shape, size, colouring and text are all pretty big giveaways.
Sainsbury’s, at least, is honest – all three of them had palm oil within their first three ingredients, whether the main ingredient was rapeseed oil, olive oil or sunflower oil. I can’t believe Unilever doesn’t use exactly the same ingredients. The difference is, they are being sneaky and non-committal about it.
Another campaigner, Darcy Finnegan, has an excellent website here - she has had some great success with some corporations giving answers, whether satisfactory or not, to some difficult questions and acknowledging the environmental and ethical issues. Unilever have been noticeably silent.
So what was my choice – supermarket spread which has palm oil, or Unilever spread which almost certainly has palm oil? Hobson’s choice … I picked one and suppressed it from my conscience.
So this post raises two issues – number one: Unilever, please label your products and be more honest. If you are publicly announcing that you are trying to support the RSPO, and not denying your use of palm oil, then please at least label those products that use it. And two, is there any widely available spreadable butter or margarine that doesn’t contain palm oil?
Thanks for this Neil – I’ve been trying to find out about Bertoli, branded as olive oil based (on the pack…”produced outside of italy with Bertoli olive oil). The oil ingredients are listed as “Bertoli olive oil, composed of refined olive oils and virgin olive oils, Rapeseed oil and…. there it is again… “vegetable oils”. I checked on the Bertolli sectioin of Unilever site and Unilever main site. They don’t make it easy for you to contact them by e-mail, do they? Needs a news hound!
On Greencity and their “organic palm shortening”, they responded to my request for more info by refering me to their supplier’s connection with RSPO. Don’t actually say it is certified as from sustainable sources though.
Arjay - September 27, 2009 at 4:39 pm |
Keep up the good work.
I think I may have pursuaded a local supermarket to change their baking to be palm-oil free, after I contacted them, they have their own bakery, after 8 months of testing they replaced all cookies/muffins etc with, I hope, palm-free ingredients (ie butter/canola) – yes Im in Vancouver, Canada.
So its really important to get out there and contact businesses and retailers to put pressure on their suppliers etc esp. if they claim to be “ethical” or “sustainable” …. a small victory for us.
PS I will be contacting the store bakery manager of production to confirm the change. Just to make sure.
-Bob
Bob - September 29, 2009 at 7:40 am |
Hi…Your Blog is an excellent source on insight and info. Keep up the great work! I too get frustrated when shopping. I have found Breyers Ice Cream has Palm Oil in it, much to my surprise! So I now buy “Island Farms” a local Dairy Farm, that produces their own ice cream. So not only am I supporting the local community, but refraining from attributing to the Palm Oil delimma. It costs a few cents more, but well worth the peace of mind. I have also found that “LINDT” Chocolate has Palm Oil listed as one of its ingredients…oh well, don’t need that brand…will find another! I read an interesting article the other day about how Palm Oil contributes 55% fat to products, yet canola oil contributes only 8%. The difference is staggering! Why would we want to put our bodies thru such unhealthy abuse of trying to assimulate so much fat into/thru our bodies! Certainly not good for the arteries,heart or well being! http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/food-industry-facing-fat-flak-20090928-g98q.html
(and very little)
Well I will persevere, and contact anyone and everyone in regards to Palm Oil listed in their products as one of the ingredients. As for the margarine delimma…I use butter.
I have found that since becoming aware of the Plight of the Orangutans & Devastation to our Great Rain Forests…my attitude towards buying and cooking food has changed. I have gone back to simpler things, less processed foods, make more from scratch and feel much better for it…literally and figuratively!
Dale
daylee - September 29, 2009 at 5:40 pm |
We are so concerned about the orang u tang – quite rightly so, but what about the humble cow? If you change from margarine to butter, you are condemning the cow (please see the vegan society website). I am vegan and buy and eat soya margarine which I hope does not contain palm oil. Correct me if I am wrong…..
Kirstan - March 1, 2010 at 2:49 pm |
Most soya spreads contain palm oil to keep them soft. Its not just the palm oit plantations that are destroying the rain forests but the huge soya plantations too.
Sue sewll - March 25, 2010 at 4:59 pm |
[...] supermarket packet, contain palm oil? Probably. And can I believe what they are spreading? I can. I can believe that it isn’t butter too [...]
Day 41 – ice cream and other guilty pleasures … | Going palm oil free - March 29, 2010 at 9:30 pm |
Hi,
Great blog, it has come up many times when I have googled ‘palm oil free’ info. It is very difficult currently to make the right choices as we are not given clear ingredients lists. The more that consumers shout about their concerns of palm oil use the more suppliers will have to take note. Like Dale I was buying margarine but after lots of research I have decided to buy local butter instead. We don’t eat much spread anyway so the extra cost won’t be too much of a problem and overall (in my opinion) buying a good quality local butter is better than a processed margarine that contains palm oil. We also changed our peanut butter too. I think if everyone changed just a couple of items it would help, it would be most difficult (and expensive) for many families to omit palm oil completely but every little helps.
Lauren - October 12, 2010 at 2:11 pm |
Unfortunately soya oil is as bad as palm oil Kirstan. I am a recently converted vegan and the decision has raised huge ethical issues for me but I’m getting through each one! and happily too! This is a great site, more info like this needs to be circulated. So far, I’ve found the only substitute for marg to be organic unrefined coconut oil. No animals are harmed, but up comes the issue of world shortage, fair trade and human exploitation??? Oh man how did things ever get this bad . . .
Catherine - June 22, 2011 at 11:38 am |