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Palm Oil Free Guide to Christmas Food

Our essential palm oil free guide to help those boycotting palm oil or only buying sustainable palm oil this Christmas 

This Christmas, you can buy your mince pies, chocolates, biscuits and Christmas puddings from companies that only use sustainable palm oil.

Or you could choose to boycott palm oil completely and buy palm oil free products. 

We've put together a list of companies which receive our best rating for palm oil, either for being a palm oil free company or for using best practices in their sourcing.

For example, a company must have all of the possible palm products (palm oil, palm kernel oil, palm oil derivatives) used in its global supply chain certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) plus something extra like full disclosure of volumes, suppliers, or traceability to the mill. Or else a high proportion certified and even more other positive initiatives.

The higher proportion of palm sourced from 'segregated' supply chains, the easier it is for a company to achieve our best rating.

Another way companies can demonstrate engagement on this issue is by sourcing palm oil that is certified as organic.

For all of the best-rated companies, we list their individual products that are palm oil free.

See our full list of palm-oil free products

How do the supermarkets rate for palm oil?

In general, most supermarkets lose some points in our rating system for their palm oil policies and usage in own-brand products and don't achieve a 'best' rating. Our guide to supermarkets has more information about how they score for palm oil.

Although Iceland own brand products were palm oil free for a while, currently they are using some palm and other oils due to the war in Ukraine and supply issues with sunflower oil.

If you're shopping in a supermarket for things like mince pies check the ingredients if you're looking for certified or palm oil free products.

Why is palm oil a hot topic?

Read our articles about what palm oil is and what it's used for to find out about the ethical and environmental issues associated with palm oil, what sustainable palm oil is, and criticisms of RSPO, the body who oversee some sustainable palm oil.

 

Palm Oil Free Mince Pies

Company Palm Oil Free Products
Authentic Bread Company  Organic mince pies, Lemon & Ginger organic mince pies, Organic & Vegan Gluten-less Mince Pies (all available from their website or Abel & Cole*)
Abel & Cole* (made by Authentic Bread Company) Mini organic mince pies, Luxury Organic Mince Pies, Vegan & organic mini mince pies (all available online*)
Riverford (made by Authentic Bread Company)  Organic Mince Pies, Organic & Vegan Mince Pies.
Roots & Wings  Organic Mince Pies, Organic Mini Mince Pies 
Daylesford  Organic Mince Pies, Organic Almond & Armagnac Mince Pies - Buy from Daylesford website, or Planet Organic* (ordinary) or Abel & Cole* (almond)

Make your own mince pies

You could make your own mince pies using palm oil free mincemeat.

Authentic Bread Co, Infinity Foods, and Meridian all sell jars of organic, vegan, suet-free mincemeat.

Or you could make your own mincemeat without suet.

 

Palm Oil Free Christmas Puddings

  • Vegan, organic and palm oil free - Riverford, Infinity Foods
  • Vegan and palm oil free - Kite
  • Organic and palm oil free - Authentic Bread Co, Roots and Wings, Abel & Cole

 Company   Palm Oil Free 
Authentic Bread Company  Chocolate Orange Organic Christmas Pudding - from Abel & Cole*
Riverford Organic 

Organic & Vegan Christmas Pudding.  

Infinity Foods Organic Vegan & gluten free Christmas Pudding.
Roots and Wings Organic Christmas Puddings and Organic & gluten free Christmas puddings. Buy from Roots and Wings website. 
Abel & Cole* Organic Luxury Christmas Puddings 
Kite Wholefoods  Vegan Christmas Plum Pudding. Buy from your local wholefood shop. 
Foods of Athenry  Very Merry Christmas Gluten- & Wheat-free Pudding. Buy from its online shop
Thursday Cottage  Nut-free Christmas puddings - see their website

Christmas Puddings with sustainable palm oil

The following companies gets our best rating for their palm oil policy and sell Christmas puddings containing organic palm oil:

Small squares of dark chocolate and two raspberries

 

Palm Oil Free Chocolate and Gift Chocolates

All the companies below only make palm oil free chocolate.

All chocolate is palm oil free, organic, vegan and fair trade
Vego - Buy from various shops including Planet Organic* and Ethical Superstore*
Pacari - Go to their online shop
Beyond Good - Buy from their website
Ombar - Buy from various shops including Planet Organic* and Ethical Superstore*
All chocolate is palm oil free, organic and vegan
Booja Booja - Buy from various shops including Planet Organic
Moo Free - see their website
All chocolate is palm oil free, vegan and fair trade
MIA - see their website
All chocolate is palm oil free, organic and fair trade
Cocoa Loco - Go to their online shop or buy from Oxfam*
Fairafric - see their website
Equal Exchange - Buy from various shops including Ethical Superstore*
All chocolate is palm oil free and fair trade
Divine - Buy from Ethical Shop
Tony's Chocolonely - Buy from various shops including Ethical Superstore* and Oxfam*
Willie's Cacao - Buy from their website
Chocolat Madagascar - Buy from their website
All chocolate is palm oil free and organic
Seed & Bean - Buy from their online shop, or high street shops, or from Ethical Superstore* and Oxfam*
All chocolate is palm oil free and vegan
Plamil - Buy from their website
All chocolate is palm oil free
Montezuma - Go to their online shop, buy from high street shops, or online from Ethical Superstore* and Planet Organic*

Read our ethical shopping guide chocolate for companies' overall rating for corporate responsibility.

 

Biscuits

The biscuits most likely to be palm oil free are those that are 'all butter' or the more expensive 'cookies'.

Company Palm Oil Free Products
Island Bakery All biscuits and oatcakes except Sweet FA biscuits, buy from Planet Organic* or Abel & Cole*. Oatcakes and Sweet FA range are vegan.
Amisa all biscuits - buy from Planet Organic*
Biona all cripsbreads, spelt, corn and rice cakes - buy from Planet Organic*
Lazy Day all biscuits palm oil free and vegan - buy from Ethical Superstore*
Mr Organic all biscuits palm oil free and vegan - buy from Abel & Cole*

Biscuits containing sustainable palm oil

The following companies get our best rating for their palm oil policy and sell biscuits containing RSPO certified sustainable, Fairtrade or organic palm oil:

  • Island Bakery, uses sustainable palm in Sweet FA biscuits
  • Against the Grain, use organic palm oil. All biscuits vegan and gluten free
  • Doves Farm, use organic palm oil. All biscuits are organic and vegan 
  • Biona, all biscuits and cookies contain organic palm oil. All vegan except blueberry and rapsberry cookies.
  • Nairn's, all contain palm oil. Everything, except cheese and salted caramel varieties, is vegan.
  • Hill's, all contain palm oil. Some are vegan.

See our biscuits product guide to see how the companies compare on their overall corporate responsibility. 

*Shopping online

If you choose to shop online, you may like to support us and some carefully chosen affiliate companies.

We have affiliate links with the following online retailers who stock the above products (along with many other things):

Ethical Consumer makes a small amount of money from your purchase with our affiliates. This goes to fund our research and campaigning. We ethically screen all the sites we link to.

Which ethical online retailers stock which products?

Although stockists and availability vary, the current list below was correct as of 23rd November 2022.

Retailer Stocks which products listed above?
Abel & Cole

Mince pies, Christmas puddings, and mincemeat: Abel & Cole and Authentic Bread Company

Biscuits: Island Bakery, Mr Organic, Doves Farm

Ethical Shop Divine chocolate
Ethical Superstore

Christmas Puddings: Foods of Athenry, Authentic Bread Co

Chocolate: Divine, Equal Exchange, Montezuma, Ombar, Plamil, Seed & Bean, Tony's, Vego

Biscuits: Doves Farm, Lazy Day, Nairns

Oxfam Chocolate: Cocoa Loco, Divine, Seed & Bean, Tony's Chocolonely chocolate
Planet Organic

Chocolate: Booja, Ombar, Montezuma, Vego

Biscuits: Island Bakery, Doves Farm, Biona, Nairns, Amisa