Palm oil-the cheapest fat, the enemy of forests, indigenous peoples and consumer health-still oozes from supermarket shelves. Our brief market survey shows a few dozen food products where it is still present.
Meanwhile, in France, new software allows products containing this emblem of abuse and burning to be intercepted and excluded.
Palm oil, where it is found
As of July 2020, palm oil is still present in many foods. With a (non-exhaustive) reconnaissance, we selected 30 of them. Cookies, snacks, breadsticks and other baked goods, risotto mixes, noodles, puff pastry, ginseng coffee capsules. A small representation, in the image review to follow. With the paradox of Vitasnella (Mondelez): a brand evocative of lightness-which will soon face regulation on Nutrition & Health Claims-employs a fat that promotes the accumulation of abdominal fat.
Palm oil in Italy
The revolt against the use of palm oil in Italy began with the petition launched by the writer (Dario Dongo), on Great Italian Food Trade and Il fatto alimentare, the summer of 2014. Shortly before the implementation of EU Regulation 1169/11, which as of Dec. 13, 2014 in fact forced operators to specify label the nature of ‘vegetable fats’.
On 5.6.16, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) highlighted the danger of process contaminants that palm oil contains in amounts 6-10 times higher than other vegetable fats. With warning of the risks of cancer and mutagenesis to which children are particularly exposed.
Palm is very bad for you, but the European Commission has wilfully failed to manage the serious public health risk. Always in the service of Big Food, which – as we have shown, with the
Palma Leaks
– had exact knowledge of the serious dangers at hand.
We renew our invitation to sign the Buycott petition! Palm oil, GMO soy, and American meats., launched by Égalité and Great Italian Food Trade, with membership from No Pesticides, Legambiente, Associazione Comuni Virtuosi, Humus Network, European Consumers, Coalition Against Land Grabbing (CALG).
The campaign of France
The French campaign followed the Italian campaign. Get palm oil out of our foods! The antihuiledepalme.fr platform, indicates that‘according to the latest data from Open Food Fact, the largest food database, palm oil is found in 10,000 products in France alone (14,341 according to our audit of 7/21/20, ed.). This ubiquitous oil in our processed foods is a serious danger to forests‘.
To make it easier to identify the tropical fat, the platform’s animators have launched a program that implements the functionality of the Google search engine and enables the identification of palm oil in all products sold in supermarkets.
Once the extension is installed, simply connect to the sites of Carrefour, Monoprix, Biocoop or Auchan and browse the products. Those containing palm oil will automatically be highlighted with a red box. A system for conscious acquisitions that runs smoothly. Not palm.
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
