Approximately 50% of products on supermarket shelves contain palm oil, and chocolate is a key player in the use of palm oil.
Orangutans have diminished by 50% in the past 10 years as palm oil plantations destroy their habitats.
Easter is imminent and, whether you celebrate Easter or not, most of us will be seduced by the copious amounts of chocolate circulating our homes, offices and supermarkets in the coming days. As this onslaught of confectionary approaches it’s important to keep in mind what you’re really putting your money towards when buying chocolate.
In Australia it’s not a legal requirement for brands to state whether or not they use palm oil, which makes it an overwhelming task to separate the bad from the good. One very simple trick to avoid palm oil is: EAT WHOLEFOODS. It'd be very hard to sneak palm oil into a banana, carrot, avocado or bunch of fresh leeks, so this is an easy way to avoid palm oil at all costs.
However, on the occasion when chocolate really is the only cure, here are a few major brands that are safe to buy this Easter:
- Haigh’s Chocolate
- Koko Black
- Whittaker’s
- Lindt & Sprungli – Lindt Excellence and Lindt Creation chocolate blocks (Note that filled products such as Lindor do contain palm oil)
- Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate blocks – Dairy Milk, Old Gold, Dream
- Cadbury Green & Black’s chocolate blocks (except Butterscotch; Raisin & Hazelnut)
- Aldi Stores: Choceur, Just Organics, Moser-Roth
Some sneaky ingredients that often contain palm oil
- Any ingredient with the word palm in it will include palm oil - palmitate, palmitoyl or simply palm.
- There are some ingredients used in cosmetics and food that commonly contain palm oil (but not always) so products with these words may require some investigation before purchasing - cetyl alcohol, isopropyl, sodium lauryl sulphate, steareths, fatty alcohol sulphates, glycerine, cocoa butter equivalent and cocoa butter substitute.
Click here to learn more about what palm oil is and why it’s important to avoid it.
As consumers, we have the power and responsibility to make considered purchases. The sad fact is that a lot of money wasted in supermarkets is contributing to the destruction of the planet and the deaths of countless innocent creatures, but with the right information and increased consumer knowledge, we can make better choices every day.
For a more extensive list of palm oil free products, click here.
There are some great chocolate companies that are local, organic, natural and totally palm oil free. My favourite is Pana Chocolate . My mouth is watering just thinking about it.