environment magazine

Choices for the discerning food lover

BM TRADA Certification Sales Manager Andy Green looks at palm oil, which features in many well known food brands, if consumers but knew it.

Chocolate lovers may spend little time reading the wrapper on their chocolate bar. If they did they would rarely see the words ‘palm oil’ in the list of ingredients.

Yet palm oil is used in many brands of chocolate as a replacement for cocoa butter, but under the heading of ‘vegetable oil’ in many more confectionery, bakery and food items.

And as an ingredient there is much to commend it.  It has many unique properties of benefit to the manufacturer and is extremely high yield, meaning less land is required to produce it. It is low tech in production, relying on labour rather than machinery - and little pesticide use is associated with it.  Its popularity has grown so rapidly that palm oil now represents about one-third of world vegetable oil production and is estimated to be used in 50% of all products sold in supermarkets, including food, cosmetics and toiletries.

However, some growers have created plantations by cutting down natural forests, areas of high conservation value and rich in bio-diversity, or have planted on peat bogs, leading to high levels of carbon being released.  As is often the case, this is a problem with people, not the plant.

BM TRADA has been delivering certification services for 35 years, but nothing has caused such an emotive reaction as the effects of palm oil production on the tropical rainforests and the environment. Although originally an African crop, the vast majority, more than 80%, of the world’s palm oil, is produced in Malaysia and Indonesia. Around 45 million tonnes are produced and this is mainly consumed in India, China and Europe.

To address mounting international concern, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004, to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil. Its objective is promoting the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders.

BM TRADA has worked very closely with the RSPO to develop a standard which is robust enough to give confidence to consumers, yet simple to implement by suppliers.  This system requires third-party auditing to ensure compliance to the standards and there are strict rules on making claims about certified palm oil. This follows the path set by other successful certification schemes, such as FSC in timber, a widely recognised and trusted symbol of responsible forestry. 

Last year BM TRADA became the first independent body to become RSPO-accredited to carry out third-party supply chain certification – and this year RSPO’s influence has really started to bite. By the end of the first quarter, we had certified more companies than in the whole of the previous year. Clients’ motivation, however, has been varied. For some, the desire to be RSPO-certified this has been in response to customer demand, but for many others, like British Bakels below, it is seen to be the only ethical way forward.  Instead of moving away from palm oil – not that easy without some significant impact on quality, shelf life, taste or cost - they have taken the view that encouraging sustainable production is the more constructive course. Major retailers have issued public statements that they will purchase only certified palm oil by a given date: 2015 is a common target.

We believe that this is the best way forward, creating a desire for sustainable palm oil to help improve practices in producing areas.  If we in Europe were simply to stop buying, purchasers less concerned about sustainability would simply buy more. Producers would lose faith and slip back into old habits, exacerbating the problems we are seeking to address with certification. In addition, from a purely practical point of view, if palm oil production were to cease, we would need around 20 times more land to meet the world’s demands for vegetable oils from other sources.  To put this into perspective, to meet expected demands for palm oil, we need an area the size of Spain.  If there were  a complete switch to other vegetable oils, this would be the size of Canada.

Encouragingly, the volumes of certified sustainable palm oil are rising rapidly to meet this demand. By May 2011, when RSPO launched its new Trademark, RSPO-certified production had exceeded 5 million tonnes and RSPO expects that total to double by the end of the year.  As the Trademark finds its way onto supermarket shelves, discerning consumers will have a choice.

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