Ethical Consumer
  1. You are in:
  2. Home
  3. Palm Oil
  4. Brands and Companies that use Palm Oil

Brands and Companies that use Palm Oil

image: palm oil fruit all piled up in mass brands and companies that use palm oil

Companies and Brands to avoid over unsustainable palm oil use

The companies listed below all score our lowest ratings for their use of palm oil. 

This doesn't mean that all of the company's brands sell products containing palm oil, but if you want to avoid companies that contribute to the palm oil problem, you might want to avoid all their brands.

The companies listed here either failed to provide sufficient information, or had received serious third-party criticisms related to their palm supply chain:

Butter, margarine and spreads

  • Groupe Lactalis (President)
  • Kerry Group (Pure Dairy Free)

Shopping guide to butter and spreads

Food retailers

  • Iceland
  • Amazon Fresh

Shopping guide to supermarkets

NB - Iceland was removing palm oil from all its own-brand products, but from June 2022 was re-using it because of supply issues and costs of sunflower oil due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Chocolate

  • Love Cocoa (inc. H!P which is palm oil free)
  • Mars (inc. Celebrations, Hotel Chocolat (palm oil free), Galaxy, Malteser's, Mars, M&Ms, Twix)
  • Mondelez (inc. Bournville, Cadbury, Core D'Or, Green & Black's, Milk Tray, Roses, Toblerone)
  • Nestle (inc. Aero, After Eight, Kit Kat, Matchmakers, Smarties, Yorkie)

Shopping guide to chocolate

Fast food and takeaways

  • Domino's Pizza
  • Caffe Nero
  • Camden Food Co, Upper Crust (SSP Group)
  • Papa Johns
  • Pret A Manger
  • Starbucks
  • Subway

Shopping guide to fast food chains

Pet food

Lowest ratings were received by:

  • Colgate-Palmolive
  • Nestle

See the cat food and dog food guides for more information.

Beauty products

  • Alberto Balsam, Bedhead, Timotei (Yellow Wood Partners)
  • Attitude
  • Avon
  • Body Shop
  • Colgate-Palmolive (Palmolive, Sanex)
  • Dr Organic
  • Lush
  • Procter and Gamble (Aussie, Head and Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Old Spice, Pantene)
  • PZ Cussons (Bayley's of Bond St, Carex, Childs Farm, Imperial Leather, Original Source, Charles Worthington)
  • Superdrug
  • Unilever (Dove, Lynx, Pears, Radox, Shea Moisture, Simple, Tresemme, Wild)
  • Wella
  • Yaoh

Shopping guide to soap

Laundry Detergents

  • Ariel, Bold, Daz, Lenor (Procter & Gamble)
  • Astonish
  • Attitude
  • Clean n Fresh (McBride)
  • Earth Breeze
  • Ecozone
  • Homethings
  • Persil, Surf (Unilever)
  • Vanish, Woolite (Reckitt Benckiser)

Shopping guide to laundry detergent

Palm oil: buy or boycott?

In this video we discuss 10 things you need to know about the world’s most controversial ingredient.

How we rate companies for Palm Oil policy

Lowest ratings

If companies demonstrate no or minimal commitment to sourcing sustainable palm oil, or have good policies but have still received serious criticisms for abuses in their palm supply chain, they will receive the lowest ratings.

Highest ratings

Companies will score highest if they don't use any palm oil or derivatives. 

Large companies can also score some of the highest ratings if all palm oil and derivatives are certified by the RSPO, with at least 50% coming from Segregated or Identity Preserved supply chains, they list all their mills and producers, and publish an annual grievance list. And they should ensure none of their producers are among those with the most inadequate ‘No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation’ policies. 

We're a bit more lenient with small and medium companies, focusing much more on whether they are sourcing certified palm and derivatives, or trying to avoid using palm oil. 

Subscription magazine and devices

Start your 30 day trial today!

Ethics made easy - comprehensive, simple to use, transparent and reliable ethical rankings. Subscribe today for a wealth of data at your fingertips.

We will take payment when you order, but you can cancel by phone or email within 30 days for a full no-questions-asked refund!

30 day trial subscription - find out more

We always check the ethics of our advertisers

Also of interest

  • Five unethical companies

    Five images of Asda, Tesco, Amazon.com, Kitkat Nestle, and Coca Cola
    Listed below are five of the lowest ranking companies across our product guides.  All these companies score poorly across our rating system for failing to address issues including human rights, animal rights and environmental concerns. 
    Read more

Free Issue

Sign up now to our email newsletter for a free digital copy of Ethical Consumer magazine.

Sign up to our email newsletter