How palm oil has permeated your weekly shop
Cosmetics
Palm oil and its derivatives lurk in an astounding 70pc of global cosmetics, where they serve as emulsifiers and surfactants. Lipsticks rely on palm oil as it holds colour well, doesn’t melt at high temperature and has virtually no taste.
Soap and shampoo
Palm oil is used as a conditioning agent in shampoo.
Unilever, which buys more palm oil than most other consumer-goods conglomerates for use in products such as Dove soap and Pond’s cold cream, recently committed to tracing its entire supply to sustainable sources by 2019. Other companies, such as L’Oreal, also pledged to follow suit.
Bread
Palm oil is widely used to make bread due to its solidity at room temperature, making it cheap and easy to bake with on a large scale. A survey by the Rainforest Foundation (updated in 2017) found Tesco and British-based stores Asda and Morrisons are all using palm oil in their in-store bakeries.
Ready meals
Among Iceland’s palm oil offenders — from which it has already removed it or is in the process of doing so — were ready meals such as luxury chicken makhani masala, chicken stew and dumplings, and its luxury beef wellington. Palm oil forms 20pc of the weight of a packet of instant noodles. It is also added to frozen pizza dough.
Chocolate
Palm oil is used to create its smooth and shiny exterior.
Last October,
Nestle, Mars and Hershey were accused of breaking pledges to stop using “conflict palm oil” from deforested Indonesian jungles. The firms say they have committed to improving its traceability.
Washing detergent
Palm oil is refined to create soap, washing powder and other cleaning products. Studies have recorded palm oil in 30-40pc of cleaning products.
Puddings
A vast array of puddings and desserts rely on palm oil. Among the list of products Iceland says it has removed palm oil from, or will do so by the end of 2018, are mince pies and Bramley apple pie. Palm oil is used in ice cream to make it smooth and creamy, and appears in mass-produced biscuits.