Iceland to ban palm oil from own-brand products

Frozen food supermarket chain Iceland will stop using palm oil as an ingredient in all of its own label food by the end of 2018, it has announced.

Iceland has already brought out 100 new lines without palm oil and by the start of 2019 will have launched over 200 new lines that do not contain the ingredient.

According to the group growing demand for palm oil for use in food products, cosmetics and biodiesel is devastating tropical rainforests across south east Asia. It added that many species are being threatened with extinction, including the already critically endangered orangutan.

Iceland said it wanted to demonstrate to the food industry that it is possible to reduce the demand for the oil whilst seeking solutions that do not destroy the world’s rainforests.

Richard Walker, managing director for Iceland, said: “Until Iceland can guarantee palm oil is not causing rainforest destruction, we are simply saying ‘no to palm oil’. We don’t believe there is such a thing as guaranteed ‘sustainable’ palm oil available in the mass market, so we are giving consumers a choice to say no to palm for the first time.”