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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 in some of their products 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

  • Palm oil is often used in the vegetable suet in the mincemeat.
  • All the palm oil free mince pies listed below are organic.

Brand Palm Oil Free Products
Authentic Bread Company  Organic mince pies, Organic & Vegan Gluten-less Mince Pies (available from Abel & Cole*)
Abel & Cole (made by Authentic Bread Company) Vegan mini organic mince pies, , Mini organic mince pies, Luxury organic mince pies. (available from Abel & Cole*)
Riverford (made by Authentic Bread Company)  Organic Mince Pies, Organic & Vegan Mince Pies.
Roots & Wings  Organic Mince Pies, Organic gluten free mince pies, Organic Mini Mince Pies. Buy from Roots and Wings website.

Our Mince Pies guide  found that the following supermarkets sold some palm oil free mince pies: 

Aldi, Asda, Iceland, M&S, Tesco, Waitrose.


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 from scratch.

 

Palm Oil Free Christmas Puddings

  • Vegan, organic and palm oil free - Riverford, Roots & Wings
  • Vegan and palm oil free - Kite
  • Organic and palm oil free - Roots and Wings, Abel & Cole
 Company   Palm Oil Free 
Riverford Organic  Organic & Vegan Christmas Pudding.  
Roots and Wings Organic Christmas Puddings and Organic & gluten free Christmas puddings, Organic and vegan 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-free Pudding, Christmas Pudding (wheat). 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

All the companies below only make palm oil free chocolate.

Type of chocolate Brands
All chocolate is palm oil free, organic, vegan and fair trade Vego - Buy from health food shops and online via Ethical Superstore*
Conscious Chocolate - Buy from health food shops and online via their website.
Monchoco - Buy from their website.
Pacari - Go to their online shop
Ombar - Buy from various shops including Ethical Superstore*
The Raw Chocolate Company - Buy from health food shops and online via Ethical Superstore*
All chocolate is palm oil free, organic and vegan Booja Booja - Buy from various shops or their website.
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 Fairafric - see their website
'57 Chocolate - see their website
Cocoa Loco - Go to their online shop
All chocolate is palm oil free and fair trade Divine - Buy from Ethical Shop or Oxfam* or from Ethical Superstore*
Tony's Chocolonely - Buy from various shops including Ethical Superstore* and Oxfam*
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*
All chocolate is palm oil free and vegan Plamil - Buy from their website
LoveRaw - buy from Veo* or from Ethical Superstore*
All chocolate is palm oil free Montezuma - Go to their online shop, buy from high street shops, or online from Ethical Superstore*

 

Biscuits

Some brands are palm oil free across their whole range, and others have some products which are palm oil free.

Palm oil free companies are:

  • Mr Organic
Company Palm Oil Free Products
Island Bakery All biscuits and oatcakes except Sweet FA biscuits, buy from Abel & Cole*. Oatcakes and Sweet FA range are vegan.
Amisa all biscuits - buy from Abel & Cole*
Biona all cripsbreads, spelt, corn and rice cakes - buy from Ethical Superstore*
Lazy Day all biscuits (not tiffin) 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, use sustainable palm oil 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 raspberry 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. Some producers and stockists only sell certain items like mince pies at specific times of the year. 

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

Watch the video to learn 10 things about palm oil