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Palm Oil Free Chocolate

Image: chocolate in a jar and broken up into chunks
Tim Hunt
By
Tim Hunt

How to avoid chocolate brands that use palm oil.

Chocolate does not usually contain palm oil. However, it is commonly filled with biscuit and other such fillings, and so palm oil is still used by companies in a lot of chocolate bars and boxes.

In our shopping guide to chocolate we rated 42 companies on their palm oil policy, and below are the ratings for all of them.

Our palm oil ratings for chocolate companies

We assessed the palm oil policies of 109 chocolate companies and brands. We highlight companies which are palm oil free and those that are not, but that still get high marks for their policies. We may also incorporate external criticisms of companies’ palm oil supply chains into our Palm Oil column, such as those from Greenpeace.

These companies produce palm oil free chocolate

Divine, Beyond Good, Chocolat Madagascar, Pacari, Moo Free, Booja-Booja, Seed and Bean, Montezuma, Tony’s Chocolonely, Fairafric, Vego, Willies, Ombar, Mia.
 

These companies got our best rating for palm oil sourcing

Plamil, Ferrero, Mondelēz, Mars, Cocoa Loco, Equal Exchange, Biona, Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Hershey’s.
 

These companies got our middle rating for palm oil sourcing

Vivani, Ritter Sport, Lindt, Nestlé, iChoc, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose, Co-op, Sainsbury’s.
 

These companies got our worst rating for palm oil sourcing

Hotel Chocolat, Guylian, Godiva, Lidl UK, Aldi.

How we rate a company’s Palm Oil Policy

Companies will receive one of the following ratings:

Worst rating

Companies using no or minimal certified palm products, and with no or minimal positive commitments score a Worst rating.

Middle rating

The minimum that needs to be achieved for a middle rating is a fully certified supply chain, or a partially certified supply chain with other positive commitments met, such as disclosure of suppliers.

Best rating

Companies able to demonstrate a fully certified supply chain for all palm ingredients used by the whole company group, and who also declare suppliers and volumes will receive a Best rating.

Companies that are palm oil free - using neither palm oil (CPO), palm kernel oil (PKO) nor palm derivatives - will also receive a Best rating.

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Also of interest

  • 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 worst rating 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, then it's worth avoiding all their brands.
    Read more

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