Here's the reponse:
Dear Ms Bell
Thank you very much for your recent email regarding the palm oil in our products and your patience in awaiting our response.
The
straight palm component used in Linda McCartney ingredients is RSPO
certified sustainable. However, the straight palm is mixed with
something called palm fractions to
form the ingredient that we use in some of our products. Due to a much
smaller world demand for palm fractions, it's far more difficult to
segregate out sustainable palm fractions from non sustainable which
means the final ingredient isn't currently guaranteed
completely sustainable.
The
UK food industry is moving to achieve RSPO certified fractions by 2015
which in turn would mean a fully sustainable palm ingredient. The Linda
McCartney Foods brand is
actively driving this target through our suppliers to ensure that we
are able to use sustainably sourced ingredients in all of our food
products. This issue is enormously important to us, likewise to our
customers as well and we are constantly working with
suppliers on this matter.
Thank you once again for contacting us and please do not hesitate to contact us again with any further feedback or comments.
Kind regards
Sonny Patten
Customer Care Coordinator
That's good to hear, and it's nice to see a clear, honest and detailed response to a thorny question like that. I'm sure Linda would be proud.
ReplyDeleteThe RSPO is a virtually toothless organisation with zero powers of enforcement. Only palm oil that is 100% traceable should be used and companies should have a zero deforestation policy
ReplyDeleteI agree, very sadly after researching this, I have found that the RSPO is not really solving the problem and sustainable palm oil is a contradiction in terms - how do you mass harvest palm oil on an economical scale and not effect the natural environment or displace any of the animals supported by virgin forest? Lets just go palm oil free please.
DeleteAt last someone is seeing it for what it is. Further to this, like anything else, when unscrupulous people know there is a demand for something they will exploit it. There are those still illegally farming because they know they can sell it. STOP USING PALM OIL. it is purely used for financial reasons so I see producers and manufacturers no better than those who do it Illegally.
DeleteThe RSPO is a virtually toothless organisation with zero powers of enforcement. Only palm oil that is 100% traceable should be used and companies should have a zero deforestation policy
ReplyDeleteWhy not use a different oil then?
ReplyDelete'cause is the most cheapest oil on the market...
Delete