04.Check your pantry for palm oil
Palm oil is used extensively in processed foods like snacks, chocolate, biscuits and crackers. Manufacturers don’t have to declare it in the ingredients list and many simply label 'vegetable oil' which could come from anywhere – canola, palm, soybean or sunflower.
Some manufacturers are more helpful than others and declare the use of palm oil in their ingredients lists. Below are some products we’ve found declaring palm oil as an ingredient.
NOTE: This is just an indication of the types of products where palm oil is used. Similar products made by other manufacturers may contain palm oil but the manufacturer unhelpfully lists ‘vegetable oil’.
So far we've found palm oil listed as an ingredient in:
- You'll Love Coles Cup Noodles, Chicken Flavour
- Coles Smart Buy 2 Minute Noodles, Chicken Flavour
- Coles Original Water Crackers
- Coles Smart Buy Original Cracker Biscuits
- Coles Smart Buy Garlic Bread (2-pack)
- Coles Apple Pie 600g
- Go Natural Yoghurt Almond & Apricot Bar
- Leda Gingernut Cookies
- Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Bar Original
- Kellogg’s K-Time Twists Strawberry and Blueberry
- Nong Shim 'Shin Ramyun' Cup Noodle Soup, Hot & Spicy
- Kraft Easy Mac, Cheese flavour
In our submission to the review of food labelling laws and policy we called for new labelling laws that require manufacturers to declare the source of vegetable oil on ingredients lists so that consumers can avoid products containing unhealthy and unsustainable palm oil.
Tell us which products you’ve found declaring palm oil as an ingredients in our Comments.