A lot of commercial chocolate holds a dirty secret that you should be aware of - Palm Oil. A very useful, but equally destructive product. If you understand the palm oil issue, here are a list of names of both Palm Oil and its derivatives to look out for. If the Palm Oil is new to you, read on! Be informed so you can make educated decisions with your purchasing power.
Palm Oil is called many things - sometimes legitimately, sometimes to disguise its origin, many times because it is mixed with other things to become a compound ingredient. As a vegetable product, that is a very easy thing to do, not least of all because it can legitimately be called a Vegetable Oil. In 2016, the International Palm Oil Free Certification Trademark listed 608 names in 2016 and many have been added since, as ingredients and products evolve. Many other certification bodies now operate in Australia and around the world, working in various stages of Palm Oil impact and the truth is that it is hard to keep up with its extensive use. What isn't hard to keep up with is its extensive abuse as it flattens lands, livelihoods and lives.
PALM OIL IS A PARTICULARLY TRICKY INDUSTRY WITH DUBIOUS AND CRIMINAL PRACTICES AT PRETTY MUCH EVERY LEVEL OF ITS EXISTENCE. AND IT'S DIFFICULT NOT TO BE PARTY TO IT AS BODY CARE, COSMETICS AND FOOD ARE RIDDLED WITH IT - OFTEN WITHOUT PEOPLE REALISING.The problem with palm oil isn't really the product itself, beyond the fact that it's so good at what it does, and as such is used in a wide range of food and non food products. The problem is the way many palm oil plantations are established and what is destroyed to create them. In the last 25 years, nearly 32 million hectares of forests have disappeared from the face of Indonesia alone.MANY RAIN FORESTS ARE CUT DOWN ILLEGALLY IN UNCONTROLLED CLEARING, LEAVING ENDANGERED ANIMALS SUCH AS ORANGUTANS, ELEPHANTS AND TIGERS ALONG WITH HUMANS, HOMELESS, AS THE NATURAL HABITAT DISAPPEARS.
The important things to know if you are trying to avoid palm oil is to 1) understand the different names it is called and 2) understand that it is very often combined with other ingredients to created compound ingredients. You can use this list as a reference or simply shop with vendors like Biome Eco Stores or Mokosh who have a zero tolerance policy to palm oil and any of its derivatives and investigate everything they sell thoroughly. This list is sorted alphabetically and contains both specific and possible palm oil derivative ingredient names so you can easily look up a listed ingredient. Please note that some ingredients listed here may be derived from sources other than palm oil, so if you are concerned about a derivative ingredient in a product, please go ahead and ask the maker. (Products marked with an * have been added by Marion O'Leary from Mokosh in more recent years.)
The base list has been provided by © Bev Luff 2009 and you can also find it on this link. We add names to the list ongoing as we uncover them.