Shea butter, well known for its use in cosmetics, is increasingly found in packaged foods. Chocolate in the first place, vegetable margarines and baked goods in perspective, to broaden the range of alternatives to palm oil-whose #buycott is being revived-and hydrogenated fats.
Shea, traditional uses
Shea butter(shea butter, in English) is extracted from the seeds of the fruit of a tree(Butyrospermum parkii or Vitellaria paradoxa) found throughout much of Africa. Ove has always been used in food preparation as well as in cosmetic and phytotherapeutic treatments. In addition to its emollient and skin-soothing properties, its ointment is also effective in nasal decongestion, among other things. (1)
In Europe, shea has been imported for decades and used mainly in the preparation of cosmetics and traditional herbal medicines. The food industry has in turn included it in as a substitute for other ingredients. In particular:
– in chocolate, is added as an inexpensive alternative to the more expensive cocoa butter. In fact, the use of vegetable fats other than cocoa fat is allowed up to 5 percent. (2) And shea butter is commonly used in France, as in Belgium and Germany,
– in margarine, such as the one just launched by Dutch giant Bunge Loders Croklaan. So then, in perspective, also in baked goods and snacks. Like palm oil-excluded from many recipes after theEFSA alert-shea butter lends itself to industrial processing because of its natural texture. Without requiring hydrogenation processes, which instead result in the formation of hazardous substances such as trans fatty acids.
Shea butter, growth prospects
The global shea butter market will grow substantially in the years to come. +65 percent over the next five years, projected to exceed US$2.9 billion. (3)
Current key players in production are the global giants Bunge and Cargill, as well as Ghanaian Savanna Shea Industries, British Croda International, French Olvea Group, Swedish-Canadian AAK AB, British Cornelius Group plc., Ghanaian Ghanaian Nuts Co. Ltd, Belgian-Ghanaian International Oils & Fats Limited (Japanese-owned), and a Ghanaian non-profit Akoma Cooperative Multipurpose Society.
Shea, a sustainable ingredient?
Shea cultivation is still carried out by countless family farming microenterprises on the African continent. The GSA organization (
Global Shea Alliance
), which brings together 500 members in 35 countries, aims to be a ‘guarantor of a pact’ between African producers and Western distributors. Declaring that they will produce this ingredient in an environmentally and worker-friendly way.
Moreover, the sustainability is yet to be verified. And it will need to be kept under vigilant review, with attention to the rights of indigenous communities on their lands as well as the risks of deforestation, worker exploitation and child labor that already taint other tropical commodities, frompalm oil to cocoa.
Notes
(1) A. Tella. Preliminary studies on nasal decongestant activity from the seed of the shea butter tree, butyrospermum parkii Br.J. Clin. Pharmac. (1979), 7,495-497 https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1365-2125.1979.tb00992.x
(2) Since 2003, the following vegetable fats have been allowed in chocolate produced in the European Union: Illipé butter, Borneo or Tengkawang tallow, palm oil, Shorea robusta (sal) fat and stearin, shea butter, cocum butter, mango kernel. See Directive 2000/36/EC
(3) See market research
Shea Butter Market revenue to cross $2.9 billion by 2025: Global Market Insights, Inc.
(2019)
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".
