Kay's Palm Oil free blog - week one

Date: Wednesday 4 November

Week 1.  Note to self:  find a magnifying glass so that I can read the tiny print on products ( more than 200 names for palm oil ingredients)! Also get beginner’s guide to chemistry or find someone from High School!
I have the ethicalconsumer.com website to check (like Michael Portillo and his trains guidebook).

“Hovis Granary” bread and Scotland’s own “Graham’s” spreadable are free from palm oil, unlike most other equivalents, so won’t starve. (Though I’m contacting both to double check). 
Toothpaste a big problem area. All full of SLS ( sodium laureth sulphate) to make it squeezable and frothy.
Toothy tabs from Lush or from our local Neighbourfood are virtually p.o. free, though depends on how one of the other ingredients was acquired.
Washing my hands with locally made  “SmelleezSoap” from the Greenway shop and Mitchell’s newsagents is the best, though even bars of soap contain (SLS) (palm oil derivative).  Or Lush again. So no liquid soap in dispensers!
I can now spot an advert for a palm oil containing product in a nano second.

Food is going to be the real test. Fresh and local is definitely best, since most prepackaged meals are out.   Apparently Iceland, (the shop) has declared its stores to be palm oil free so need to have a look. M&S has a palm oil free food policy it seems.
( Had a look today - disappointingly not many, even in the veggie and vegan sections). 

On a happy note, ice cream from the fabulous Stewart Tower at Bankfoot is always p.o. free apart from any extras included like fudge, biscuits etc. Had to confirm by testing black vanilla and pumpkin ice creams 🖤
Swedish Glacé ok too.  Will phone Mackie’s re their ice cream. Looks probable, unlike almost all the other makes.   Learning about emulsifiers, monoglycerides etc.

I did a quick check of 20 popular biscuit brands on a couple of supermarket shelves- only 2 palm oil free - made In Belgium and Germany. Interesting!  Even oatcakes need an ingredients inspection. 󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Basically am very sad that it’s so difficult and expensive to shop ethically and that rainforests continue to be felled at a rate of a football pitch every minute for industrial levels of food additives.

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