We are beginning to get quite a few requests on this subject.

Consumers are increasingly aware of the negative environmental and social impacts of palm oil production, and want to avoid the ingredient where possible. This is a tricky task as it is in so many products. At Ethical Consumer we'd like to make it easier for you, and so will be publishing a list of palm oil free products and companies on our website soon. We invite you to post a comment here if you know of any.

Palm oil free companies include:

First Quality Foods – Sammy's cous cous, Al'fez dinner kits, condiments and spices, and Ma Baker bars

Dorset Cereals

So Baby, Truuuly Scrumptious and Ella's Kitchen baby food

Lush toiletries

Pure Nuff Stuff toiletries

OrganiPets pet food


Suma also do their best to avoid palm oil; it is now only in their margarines and soaps

This list will be invaluable - the current method of a blanket avoidance of all "vegetable oil" simply isn't practical or fair, so I would welcome such a list. When could we expect it to be published?

Two ranges from the RSPB shop are guaranteed palm oil free:

Skinny Dipper toiletries, a gorgeous range of smellies guaranteed to contain no palm oil, also free from parabens and phosphates, made in the UK, and are not tested on animals. Hooray!
You can order it on their website at http://shopping.rspb.org.uk/c/skinnydipper.htm, or do what I did and use the excuse to go to a lovely RSPB nature reserve to have a sniff before you buy.

Love Nature chocolate, which is Fairtrade, Organic, and free from palm oil and soya oil. They're at http://shopping.rspb.org.uk/p/RSPBC...colate.htm

All profits go towards the RSPB's conservation work, including a big project in the Sumatran rainforest (http://www.rspb.org.uk/supporting/c...sumatra/), so it helps twice over!

Enjoy!

All Beyond Organic Skincare products are Palm Oil Free (www.beyondskincare.co.uk). Also from Cornwall, Pure N'uff Stuff have mostly palm oil free products.

PalmOilFreeSoap.com has palm oil free unscented soap.

We now have a web page on this site with our current list of palm oil free products. It is at www.ethicalconsumer.org/ShoppingEthically/PalmOilFreeList.aspx
Do please let us know if there are other brands you think we should add.

Also worth noting that the better shortbread brands, Walkers plus some supermarket own label, do not contain palm oil whereas almost all the other biscuits seem to. Shortbread is our new standard biscuit to accompany our morning cup of tea!

Palm oil-free margarine. Is it possible?

David

In our magarine report on this site we state:

"It is extremely difficult to avoid palm oil in margarines and spreads. Consumers who prefer a vegan diet flavoured with a clear conscience will be pleased to hear that palm oil used in the Biona products comes from Daabon organic group in Colombia, which are certified by Proforest for "sustainable management"."

I think this this means we've not found one yet. One solution is to look for organic (such as Biona above) which can address some of the problems. However there has been some issues with Daabon too. So, as is often the case, it is not clear-cut.

"The Body Shop and others saw the Daabon option as a way of trying to sidestep the problems at the RSPO whilst not abandoning the ingredient altogether. This was looking to be quite a good choice until September 2009 when stories emerged from Colombia of Daabon’s plans to expand its plantations, falling foul of local peoples who claimed that land rights were being violated and existing residents evicted.7"