Your product has Palm oil!

How to identify products that contain palm oil

Unfortunately, while the EU made Palm Oil labeling compulsory in December 2014, labeling elsewhere may be deceptive. The problem is that Palm Oil hides behind myriad different names. Some of them contain “Palm,” including octyl palmitate, palmytil alcohol, palm kernel, Palm kernel oil, Palm fruit oil, Palm stearine, and many others. So if you see the word Palm in any form, it’s best to avoid it. Other known Palm Oil pseudonyms include cetyl alcohol, emulsifiers, glyceryl stearate, lauryl sulphate, sodium kernelate and stearic acid (see full list in image above). The biggest problem is that Palm Oil is often listed as “Vegetable Oil,” deceptively appealing to vegetarians and other health-conscious types. Unfortunately, processed Palm Oil is actually very high in saturated fats and calories. Not only that, but health risks of palm oil include organ toxicity, increased risk of heart disease, and it is linked to insulin resistance and obesity.

In the United States, “Vegetable Oil” is a generic term also used to describe oils that are far less detrimental (both to the environment and to people’s health), including coconut, sunflower and olive oil. Makes the EU’s compulsory labeling law seem like a smart idea, doesn’t it?

It has been estimated that over half of the products in your local supermarket include Palm oil. Snacks, cookies, candy bars and potato chips are common examples. But Palm Oil is also found in beauty products such as lipsticks, shampoo and soap. It’s found in several brands of packaged bread, because it allows loaves to remain soft on supermarket shelves for longer. It’s found in instant noodles, packaged ice cream, chocolate, detergents, industrial pizza dough and margarine… basically just about every processed, packaged product that most of us use daily.

Why is Palm Oil Bad?

News of the fires in Indonesia to clear rainforest for palm oil plantations received international media coverage in October. In The Guardian, George Monbiot defined them as “the greatest environmental disaster of the 21st century." But while 2015’s fires were worse than usual, the slash and burn agricultural process occurs annually, and many time these fires burn out of control.

Palm oil is one of the most profitable crops and grows well in hot, humid climates. Slash and burn agriculture is the quickest way to clear the land, appealing to corporations and impoverished small-scale farmers alike. Deforestation for palm oil regularly occurs in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea. An estimated 3.5 million hectares of rainforest has already destroyed.The rainforest floor contains peat and other organic materials, so it often keeps burning after the fires have been extinguished.

For some reason the world remains largely silent about this catastrophe. Palm oil interests run deep, and major corporations have done little or nothing to halt the environmental destruction. The RSPO (Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil) was established in 2004 with the aim of promoting “certified sustainable” palm oil. Unfortunately, this initiative was too little, too late, with lax membership criteria and only two members thrown out for non-compliance to date.

Suppliers (many of which are small-scale farmers) are often not checked thoroughly. Corners have been cut in order to show that memberships are on the increase. Sadly, it seems like the RSPO is doing little more than adding greenwashed buzzwords to a product that is the opposite of “sustainable.”