Yahoo Finance Iceland supermarket to ban palm oil from all own-brand products
Iceland is to become the first UK supermarket chain to ban palm oil from all of its own-brand products.
The company aims to remove all traces of the oil from its products by the end of the year.
Palm oil production, it said, is to blame for the loss of thousands of acres of tropical rainforest across south-east Asia which has seen the devastation of natural habitat for orangutans.
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The news won pretty much universal support on social media, including from the likes of comic actress Jennifer Saunders, TV naturalist Chris Packham and celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo.
Hurrah for Iceland ! #PalmOilAlarmCall https://t.co/hqG4ozypnC
— jennifer saunders (@ferrifrump) April 10, 2018
Iceland said: “Palm Oil is one of the world’s biggest causes of deforestation and poses a significant threat to a number of species already facing extinction.
“In Indonesia and Malaysia, where palm oil and wood pulp plantations are the biggest drivers of deforestation, many species are being threatened with extinction, including the orangutan.
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“The orangutan population has more than halved in the last 15 years and is now critically endangered with only 70,000 to 100,000 individuals remaining.”
Palm oil has become pervasive in a raft of supermarket products – from biscuits to soap, cakes to peanut butter, and shampoo to chocolate spreads.
It’s often seen as a cheaper alternative to rapeseed oil or sunflower oil but environmentalists say the impact of intensive planting and growing is having a huge impact on rainforests particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia.
The ban will apply to only Iceland’s own-brand products – so other products containing palm oil may well continue to be sold by the chain.
Nevertheless, managing director Richard Walker said: “Until Iceland can guarantee palm oil is not causing rainforest destruction, we are simply saying ‘no to palm oil’.
“We don’t believe there is such a thing as ‘sustainable’ palm oil available to retailers, so we are giving consumers a choice about what they buy.”
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Superb news ! Pioneering vision and determination from my new favourite supermarket . Now we have a choice and the native people and wildlife of Sumatra May have a future . https://t.co/yobqpL8jwt
— Chris Packham (@ChrisGPackham) April 10, 2018
Iceland says it has already found alternatives to palm oil for half of its own-brand products.
Products will be labelled with a “No Palm Oil” sticker featuring the face of a young orangutan.
This is the latest step by Iceland to respond to apparent growing public concern about the environment and the impact of what we buy has on the world. It pledged in February to go plastic-free on its own products within five years.
