I did the scour of the house looking for all the 'hidden sources' of palm oil in the pantry, bathroom and laundry. What did I find? Well, unfortunately there are now a few items on my 'cancelled' list. Read on fellow netzeroers.
Recap: Go and check out my previous posts to understand the nuanced world of palm oil production. It's versatile, it's cheap. It causes human rights issues and deforestation of our most precious carbon sinks, controller of global weather patterns and critical sources of biodiversity - rainforests.
I landed at the position that's it's pretty hard to avoid all sources of palm oil, and in certain circumstances it can be less environmentally impactful than other vegetable crops (like oils also grown in tropical zones but with less yield per hectare, meaning you need to clear more land), read on here. In the end, if you can't avoid palm oil then making it RSPO Certified is the best way.
However, most companies aren't getting into the certification stamp, and Australia doesn't even require palm oil to be labelled as such - it can be hiding under labels like vegetable oil, glyceryl, stearate and sodium laurel sulfate (see more titles here).
A note on RSPO certification
There has been plenty of criticism of the RSPO. It's members are largely the companies who profit from the supply chain, making influence murky. Those who breach compliance aren't penalized heavy enough. Auditing of self-reporting could be more widespread. However, given <20% of all palm oil is still NOT certified, this is better than nothing. My final word here is that RSPO certified is better than not being certified, and avoidance of palm oil products is probably the best solution overall.
Recap: Over two-thirds of palm oil is used in food products with just under 30% of global palm oil used in beauty and cleaning products, finally there's about 5% used for biofuels (which is great when it's derived from the byproducts of the palm oil production process, but terrible when from plants just grown for this purpose - there are more environmentally friendly fuel sources).
Let's check MidGreen's palm oil situation out.
Cleaning Products
First up, let's get cleaning out of the way. I've almost finished using up my old cleaning products that were in the house, from here on out I'm using Tirtyl. I've found the washing sheets to be great (yes, even in cold water) and I love the tins and refill recycled packaging. What do Tirtyl say about palm oil in their products?
All of our ingredients can be derived from other non-palm sources such as coconuts, however availability of these alternatives has been impacted by COVID-19. If we cannot source our palm-free ingredient, our partners may source alternatives from other plants, sometimes palm. If this is the case, we will request RSPO Certified palm products that are sourced from responsible farms and plantations.
Good transparency on their website and I have no problem with this and the other statements they make about palm oil.
Beauty products
Now to tackle the bathroom. If I included the entire contents of my make-up kit it would be extensive and probs expired🫢🤭, so I've pulled some of the 'frequently used' items into the mix. Let's just say that there is a LOT MORE homework involved in tracking down the sustainability reporting of make-up brands then food products.
Sunscreen Mecca Max There are no palm-oil like ingredients on the list. Phew.
However, I wanted to look at Mecca as a brand as I'm quite fond of a Mecca-branded product here and there. From my digging I found they did an audit of their suppliers to determine whether they had attained RSPO certification, however no outcome is given and it goes on to say - "In 2021 we will be continuing this work as well as commencing a similar audit for other ingredients which pose a risk to sustainability and modern slavery". Jury is out on their practices, but I've dropped Mecca an email for clarification on where they're at now. Hey Mecca, please get back to us as your customers would like to know.
Shampoo Pantene (don't judge this is my spare / guest & kids shampoo). From their own reporting and website, Proctor & Gamble (who make Pantene) claim that "P&G brands use 100% Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified palm-derived materials" since 2021. Sounds grand, I thought for sure P&G would be on the bad boys on the list. I've swapped to shampoo bars for myself as I try and transition to more sustianable options (but please send me recommendations if you use shampoo bars and have found one that's decent, as I'm not loving them).
Eye cream Drunk Elephant (Shiseido) contains Ethylhexyl Palmitate a palm oil derivative. No word on Drunk Elephant on its own, but parent brand Shishido, states "in 2020, we disclosed our medium-term target of reaching 100% sustainable palm oil by 2026." They will now be off my buy list until confirmed certified. Pls send inexpensive eye cream recommendations. CANCELLED
Foundation Nars (Shiseido) contains Ascorbyl Palmitate, parent company as above. This one sucks too, I really like their foundation. Will finish the bottle first, then hoping they've managed to hit their supply chain targets before I buy again. CANCELLED
Cleanser Paula's Choice The palm oil used in Paula’s Choice products is sourced from renewable farmer lands which are certified RSPO.
Moisturiser Origins Nothing that appeared palm oil like on the ingredients list.
However, I also checked on the parent brand Estee Lauder: By the end of calendar year 2025, at least 95% of our palm-based ingredients (palm oil and its derivatives) will be certified sustainable from RSPO physical supply chains. They are actually at 90% now so not too much further to go. I'll keep in mind reading the ingredient list carefully for Estee Lauder brands and avoid any products with palm oil derivatives until they that 100%.
Moisturizing cream Aveeno (Johnson & Johnson / Kenvue) contains Isopropyl palmitate which can be a palm oil derivative. The Parent brand states that they will "Maintain 100% Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification for our palm oil derivatives (with at least 50% of our volumes from RSPO physical supply chains by the end of 2025)."
I can't say I'm overwhelmed by J&J reporting after reading it. This is a hard one to scrap off my buy list as I've found it to be THE best eczema cream for my kid's skin (and yes, please insert hundreds of recommendations of what has worked for you, including trials of all sorts of locally made or goats milk blah blah here). Sorry, this one is the best for us.
Hair masque OGX (Johnson & Johnson / Kenvue) as above, nothing that screams palm oil in the ingredients (and it's a coconut oil product). Does that mean it's better or worse than palm oil as another tropical crop? Jury's out.
Serum kit: I've dropped them an email as the No. 2 Concentrate contains glyceryl but their website is silent on whether there is any palm oil in their products. Sustainability ethos of the website is comprehensive and transparent, with products made locally. Will update when they get back to me. UPDATE - they got back to me and don't use palm oil👏🎉.
Deodorant Margaret River Made I've dropped them an email as their awesome lemongrass deodorant contains stearic acid but their website is silent on whether there is any palm oil in their products. Sustainability ethos of the website is comprehensive and transparent, with products made locally. Will update when they get back to me.
Food products
Kitchen time. Common palm oil offenders are biscuits, chips, prepackaged cakes, breads and margarine. I am well intentioned in trying to bake or make lunchbox snacks but it doesn't always work out that way and snacks in the house are a must.
I rounded up some of the most likely offenders to see whether they contained palm oil derivatives.
Crackers Peckish Easy one - loud and proud to be palm oil free on the pack.
Crackers Tuckers I included their sustainability commitment from their website as it's a great message and super transparent on ingredient sourcing - Tucker’s Natural do not use Palm Oil in their production of any of their products. Apart from the fact it is not a healthy oil, being very high in saturated fat, the use of it globally as a cheap oil has resulted in large-scale devastation of tropical forest and habitat loss to endangered species.
Tucker’s Natural uses Australian or New Zealand Butter, Australian Canola Oil (non-GMO), Diana’s Olive Oil from the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia and Rice Bran Oil.
Crackers Kettle Canola or sunflower for all their chips and crackers.
Naan bread Coles its canola oil.
Pappadums Maharajah's Choice tricky as it lists vegetable oil. Great recipes for curries though - so that was a good find ;). UPDATE: they got back to me super quick and the vegetable oil used is coconut oil.
Egg noodles Trans, Rice Vermicelli noodles No palm oil or derivatives listed.
Noodles Mi Goreng Indomie Straight out lists palm oil. I had a dig around Indomie's website and their supplier of palm oil, all from Indonesia. Thy have a big sustainability report talking to all the right things. No primary forest was cleared in 2022. However, they are not RSPO certified, and it has me wondering why. Unfortunately (because it's such a great quick snack or add chicken and greens for the fastest after school dinner), CANCELLED. We can just use plain egg noodles or rice vermicelli instead.
Lollies Natural Confectionary Company Jellies (Mondelez) This is not my favourite parent brand company (see post on chocolate). Whilst they have 100% RSPO palm oil and report that in 2022, 100% of palm oil is said to be sourced from suppliers aligned to their own Palm Oil Action Plan, the fine print says: Excludes palm oil procured by third-party external manufacturers & co-packers for use in manufacturing. So we really have no way of knowing how much of the supply chain comes from third party manufacturers for all their myriad brands. Lots of reporting here on sustainability goals.
Chocolate Darrel Lea palm oil free. Easy.
More snacks time....
Probiotic Oat bars Nice & Natural (Griffins) lists vegetable fat, not sure if its palm oil but the parent company lists that they are RSPO certified. Happy days.
Raspberry Bars The Mood Food Company no palm oil like things listed.
Protein bars Carmens list vegetable oil - for the choc chips in this flavour: "Only products that have a yoghurt or choc compound drizzled on them contain palm oil and all of this is certified sustainable through Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil."
It's not all about palm oil
Ok so none of this has considered the health factor of those snacks (also super important) and the overall carbon footprint. How would we even work that out? With great difficulty! In fact, for most organizations it requires extensive analysis of their supply chain, which can be time-consuming and costly to trace back to source.
In fact, the production and supply chain side are far less significant component of the supply chain in most cases, as this diagram form Our World In Data shows:
And while carbon emissions is certainly the biggest factor that I monitor in my goal to live more lightly on this planet, it's not the only impact as destruction of nature and natural carbon sinks only exacerbates the greenhouse gas effect. Other things to be aware of , alongside key unsustainable ingredients like palm oil, is land clearing and water use:
Where eutrophication is pollution of waterways, often from run-off of fertilisers.
At the end of the day, start with changing habits around your choice of the raw ingredients and their footprints, as your measure of living better. Reducing your intake of beef, lamb and water-intensive products like cheese will go a long way before you can include more habits, like identifying palm-oil, reducing waste and plastics, in the weekly shop.
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