Iceland to remove palm oil from own label food
Frozen food specialist Iceland has unveiled plans to stop using palm oil as an ingredient in all of its own label food by the end of 2018.
The retailer said it has already removed palm oil from 50% of its own label range and that 130 products will have been reformulated to exclude the ingredient by the end of the year.
The move has been made following concerns that palm oil is one of the world’s biggest causes of deforestation. The reatailer is the first major UK supermarket to make the commitment.
Richard Walker, Iceland managing director, said: “Until Iceland can guarantee palm oil is not causing rainforest destruction, we are simply saying ‘no to palm oil’. We don’t believe there is such a thing as guaranteed ‘sustainable’ palm oil available in the mass market, so we are giving consumers a choice to say no to palm for the first time.”
Iceland has also brought out 100 new lines without palm oil, including those in its new summer range. By the start of 2019 it will have launched over 200 new lines that do not contain the ingredient.
