The Curmudgeon goes Palm Oil Free

After much wrangling and researching, I have decided that 2011 will be the year I strive to be palm oil free. It's a near-ubiquitous product that you'll find sneakily placed in a lot of ingredient lists, from chocolate bars to shampoos and everything inbetween.

So why am I so uptight about it? Well, here's why.

Producers of palm oil have been reported by the BBC to have illegally logged and cleared ground in high conservation areas in Borneo. Not only is this a devastating attack on vital forestry, but also represents a massive loss of habitat for the Orangutan. It is a destructive, ruthless industry, that is relied upon heavily to provide cheap vegetable oil. It's also used as a source of cheap, "clean" biofuel - although the idea of deforesting Indonesia to provide oil to burn strikes me as at the best illogical, and at the worst farcically stupid.

I never claimed to be above emotional blackmail. Here, have two baby Orangutans to make you feel *extra* guilty.

Avoiding it isn't easy. Thankfully, being the lentil eating hippy that I am, I avoid a large wedge of processed foods and make a lot of things from scratch, thereby avoiding a lot of everyday sources. For those with a slightly less holier than thou attitude to the kitchen, I find this blog has an excellent list of how to spot palm oil in the ingredients list. You'd be surprised. Fancy a nice bacon sarnie? Well, the bread, if store bought, most likely has palm oil as its fat content. Many meats also are impregnated with oils for "cooking ease", which in many cases, bizarrely, is palm oil. Vegetable oil based spread? I think you've guessed the pattern by now.

Australia seems to be the best place to go palm oil free for the moment - there is a relatively high profile campaign to avoid the product, with brands of cleaning product and foodstuffs in major supermarkets heavily promoted as palm oil free. I heartily approve of their example. Here in the UK, less of a fuss seems to have been made, and it's not quite so easy to find products definitely free of palm oil and its derivatives.

Where I fall down is my love of the tasty treat - chocolate. Palm oil is in almost every brand, and even if it comes from those labelled with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) logo, I'm keen to avoid it. As I've said, it's an industry I want no part in supporting. So who are the go-to brands to avoid palm oil?

LUSH cosmetics have already removed almost all palm oil from their supply chain, and are working hard to remove the very last traces of it.

Walkers crisps - cook exclusively in sunflower oil, so as far as palm oil content goes, it's a guilt free treat. The same goes for their Doritos brand.

For lovers of other crisps, you can also enjoy Hula Hoops and Kettle Chips without palm oil.

Mainstream cheese lovers - rejoice! Cathedral City and Dairylea are both good (though I'd recommend a good local cheesemaker instead).

Waitrose and Co-op label ALL of their own brand products using palm oil clearly instead of hiding behind other, more anonymous names, so read those labels clearly!

Chocolate is a very difficult one, as so many brands use it. There is an excellent little brand, Chokolit, that is totally palm oil free and donates money to fantastic causes. I HIGHLY recommend this brand! I would love to find more brands that are palm oil free, so please let me know in comments if you find anything further. STOP PRESS! - Divine and Dubble chocolate is made from pure cocoa butter rather than adding vegetable oil, and is totally palm oil free. It's also fair trade.

For further information, I'd read Not Just an Essex Girl's excellent post that has links to some very helpful sites for lists of foods, cleaning products and general information.

Even if you can't avoid it entirely, I hope this post has helped to highlight some of the issues involved and show how you can come a few steps closer to being an ethical consumer.