Repeatedly we have been confronted with the advice that selling products containing palm oil is not cool.
Not only is palm oil the cheapest oil available in the global market, it is also a high-melting and thus versatile applicable product. However the production of palm oil is a leading factor in the destruction of rain forest, which on the one hand is harmful to the local flora and on the other hand means expulsion and death for the animals who used to live there. According to the initiative Rainforest Rescue the same holds true for organic palm oil. As a consequence we try our best to keep the percentage of products containing palm oil in our shop as low as possible and secondly maintain a constant dialogue with our manufacturers.
accomplishments
- Zebra bars: As a reaction to our inquiry the recipe is being changed and will no longer require palm oil in the future.
- Wilmersburger cheese (only available in our local store): Received numerous inquiries (including ours) and also have managed to chance the recipe.
Items we have dropped or plan on dropping from our product range:
- Sugar sprinkles
- BioBis cookies (local store only)
- Bonbarr chocolate bars (also because the cacao is not fair trade)
- Marigold gravy (will be replaced with gravy produced by Vitam)
- Carobella spreads
To be honest, we have been a little incautious in the past, for example when we listed a bunch of christmas sweets containing palm oil last winter. We won’t be listing these products this year, sorry guys.
So if we’re not mistaken, the products in our shop which still contain palm oil are as follows:
- Plamil chocolate spreads: Plamil is currently working on alternatives, however as yet without satisfying results. We’re gonna stay in touch.
- Equita chocolate spread: Equita is aware of the problem and also looking for alternatives.
- Veggie Delight cheese (local only): contains a mixture of oils which only contains a very small amount of palm oil
- Cheezly (local only): contain palm oil, however Pural is working on alternatives
To sum up, we’re still not fully palm oil free, but don’t want to miss the products listed above. Cheezly is a delicious and affordable alternative to dairy-based cheese and the Veggie Delight is the only melting vegan cheese made of certified organic ingredients. Regarding the assortment of chocolate spreads, we dropped all products containing non fair-trade cacao last year but would like to keep the ones listed above to facilitate the switch to a vegan diet.
Nevertheless we’re gonna remind the producers of our wish for products that only contain palm oil beyond the scope of the criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) or, even better, no palm oil at all.
Fore more info on palm oil see:
Rettet den Regenwald or Robin Wood (german).