Palm oil is used to manufacture a lot of products that we use (among many others lipstick, pizza dough, instant noodles, shampoo, detergent, margarine, chocolate, cookies, soap, packaged bread, ice cream…) This creates deforestation in the rain forest at levels never seen before.

How to identify palm oil in the products you buy?

Palm oil can be found in nearly 50% of the packaged goods we eat from cookies, peanut butter, breakfast cereal to cleaning products, laundry detergent, lipstick, and body lotion.

However, you won’t always find the words “palm oil” in the ingredients. Palm oil or its derivatives can be hidden under many different terms: “Vegetable Oil, Vegetable Fat, Palm Kernel, Palm Kernel Oil, Palm Fruit Oil, Palmate, Palmitate, Palmolein, Glyceryl, Stearate, Stearic Acid, Elaeis Guineensis, Palmitic Acid, Palm Stearine, Palmitoyl Oxostearamide, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-3, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Kernelate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Lauryl Lactylate/Sulphate, Hyrated Palm Glycerides, Etyl Palmitate, Octyl Palmitate, Palmityl Alcohol”

Why is it important to avoid palm oil?

Palm oil is NOT bad in itself, but because it is used in so many products, the demand is huge and it drives deforestation because huge areas of tropical forests and other ecosystems are being stripped to plant palms.

Avoid products with palm oil. There are plenty of other options, or look for sustainably grown palm oil through labels like RSPO.

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