WHICH EASTER EGGS CONTAIN PALM OIL?

To be honest I had no idea that so many of the products we buy weekly in the supermarket contain palm oil. I’m not sure the task of becoming a responsible consumer is going to be an easy one, judging by how much of a fuss my children have already kicked up because the Easter eggs of their choice do not get bought this year because they are not high enough up the list below. “BUT THOSE ECO ONES TASTE DISGUSTING” said a group of children I was trying to persuade – “they’re just bitter, with no sugar in”…you have no idea how hard it is for us parents to save the planet.

The Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) and Ethical Consumer Magazine have done a survey of more than 70 brands of Easter eggs in response to the increasing threat that unsustainable palm oil is posing to the world’s rainforests, their indigenous wildlife (in particular the Orang-utans) and the people whose livelihoods depend on the forest.

If we, the consumers decided to vote with our feet we could actually make a real difference.  If we all stopped buying products that contained palm oil in,  then the bottom would drop out of the market.  It’s a very simple economic supply and demand argument.  We demand it.  Indonesia, Malaysia and increasingly Angola and the rainforests of the Congo Basin in Africa are supplying it.

Lindt, Thorntons and Guylian come bottom of a league table of chocolate Easter eggs scored on use of unsustainable palm oil.

“Consumers are unaware of palm oil content”, the campaign says, because of current labelling laws. Palm oil is a key ingredient in many products – including chocolate and biscuits – but companies are not required by EU law to label products containing it until December 2014.

The aim of the campaign is to encourage consumers to buy the best-rated products, forcing those companies that are not taking their environmental responsibilities seriously to use more sustainably sourced palm oil.

Divine and Booja-Booja were deemed to have the best overall credentials, with neither using any palm oil in their chocolate products. Traidcraft, Co-operative Food and Sainsbury’s also scored very highly. Waitrose, just one point lower. But my favourite Terry’s Chocolate Orange? Rubbish, right at the bottom – same with Flake – in fact same with all Kraft products that aren’t on their organic range.

The bottom three chocolate companies were deemed to be Lindt, Thorntons and Guylian. Lindt reportedly supplied inaccurate figures to Ethical Consumer, while Thorntons and Guylian failed to submit any documentation to the organisations that set international sustainable palm oil standards.

Cadbury now owned by US company had poor scores while Green & Black’s, well-known for its organic range, did much better.

The guide to chocolate is the first of a series of guides that will rate all consumer products using palm oil. Future guides will include biscuits, cereals and spreads.

According to a recent RFUK report, 1m acres of rainforest in the Congo Basin is being developed by palm oil producers. With 284m acres of suitable soil in the region, developers are actively seeking large sites.

Tim Hunt, co-director of Ethical Consumer, added: “Consumer power has the potential to help save the Congo’s rainforests and its wildlife that are under threat from palm oil production. This Easter we’re asking chocolate lovers to buy their Easter eggs from those chocolate companies that we’ve identified as taking an ethically responsible stance on this critical issue.”

There was an article in the Guardian this week that I’ve taken this information from. If you want to see the original article, the link is here:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/25/easter-eggs-palm-oil

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