4 ms·

> Just avoid products with palm oil, though that's getting rather hard to do. It's infeasible without spending a lot of time studying the tiny print on the pac

> Just avoid products with palm oil, though that's getting rather hard to do. It's infeasible without spending a lot of time studying the tiny print on the packaging of almost every item you buy apart from produce, meat, bread, and dairy. And even then some people will end up having to rigorously change their shopping pattern. This is in addition to all the other environmental and ethical issues in the supermarket: animal welfare guarantees, chocolate that doesn't screw the farmers over, sustainable fishing, local produce, and of course choosing to shop with the goal of eating healthy in that hall of temptations. This is not something consumers can fix buy voting with their wallets. It's just too abstract: palm oil is used in so many products that have no strong link to that issue (unlike meat and seafood).

realusername 8y ago
Depends where you live, most products with palm oil here in Europe are part of non-essential products, you just need to avoid the big brands and buy more traditional products. For bread, you just need to buy real bread and not white bread.
- mantas 8y ago
  Eeeeh. Even "traditional" products get "enhanced" with palm oil. I was buying certain mainstream-but-local cookies for a long time since they had no palm oil. I double-checked the label some time ago and they put in palm oil now. Now idea when the changed happened. I inspected every single make of cookies (I love cookies, thankyouverymuch) in several chains of supermarkets and pretty much every option had palm oil. So far, my only option is either super expensive "farmers' market" style cookies where significant part of price is for fancy packaging and buying experience. Oh, and I've to drive across town to one of the few lcoations. I just want a damn bag of cookie without any BS :(
  - chopin 8y ago
    Bake it? I do this with bread, for exactly the same reasons.
  - rleigh 8y ago
    Make your own, with 100% butter. Takes 5 minutes, and tastes so much better it's not funny. Palm oil is barely fit for human consumption, and it tastes bad. When mass manufactured products are no longer fit for purpose, it's time to ditch them. I do the same for bread as well. Just bought a 25kg sack of organic white flour which will keep me going for a few months. With practice, takes just 10 minutes to make a loaf of bread or some batch rolls (without a breadmaker). The taste, consistency and quality of it is again much better than any of the mass-produced stuff, which makes it worth that little bit of time to prepare.
  - yesenadam 8y ago
    I used to have a recipe for cookies I called "15 minute cookies" because you could be eating them 15 minutes after you thought of making them - yes, including mixing, preheating oven, cooking - which was always an irresistible thought. Sadly I lost the recipe, must find it again! Really, it's so easy to make cookies (far easier than bread), you should try. And you can add whatever special ingredients you like.. Experimenting is fun.
    - aembleton 8y ago
      https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/12665/15-minute-cookies https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/12665/15-minute-cookies
      - yesenadam 8y ago
        Hmm thanks..but mine didn't have chocolate, butter or eggs or vanilla extract. (Am vegan, don't like chocolate or vanilla extract) The only wet thing was oil I think. Just dry ingredients (maybe flour/oats/coconut/seeds/spices or whatever you want) + sugar + oil. It was 7 minutes cooking.
llukas 8y ago
If is perfectly feasible. How often do you buy new products? I skipped major part of sweets that I liked and that is mostly it. Wasn't big problem either. But saddest part is that in EU boycott worked and it changed nothing due to use of palm oil in biofuels - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/26/how-palm-oil-ban-has-made-the-eu-a-dirty-word-in-malaysia https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/26/how-palm-oil-b...
- rhn_mk1 8y ago
  > If is perfectly feasible. Only when it comes to food. It's impossible to ascertain the source of cleaning products' ingredients.
- hedvig 8y ago
  Well, probably a majority of us agree that this can be controlled from the top and not have to cross our fingers and rely on low-informed consumers to change things.
AndrewSChapman 8y ago
It is absolutely feasible. I do it. My wife does it. There are alternatives for almost everything, you just have to look and spend a bit of time researching. Sometimes you have to order products on the Internet instead of getting them in your local supermarket. Also, if a product just mentions "vegetable fat" it's more than likely palm.

realusername 8y ago

Depends where you live, most products with palm oil here in Europe are part of non-essential products, you just need to avoid the big brands and buy more traditional products. For bread, you just need to buy real bread and not white bread.

mantas 8y ago
Eeeeh. Even "traditional" products get "enhanced" with palm oil. I was buying certain mainstream-but-local cookies for a long time since they had no palm oil. I double-checked the label some time ago and they put in palm oil now. Now idea when the changed happened. I inspected every single make of cookies (I love cookies, thankyouverymuch) in several chains of supermarkets and pretty much every option had palm oil. So far, my only option is either super expensive "farmers' market" style cookies where significant part of price is for fancy packaging and buying experience. Oh, and I've to drive across town to one of the few lcoations. I just want a damn bag of cookie without any BS :(
- chopin 8y ago
  Bake it? I do this with bread, for exactly the same reasons.
- rleigh 8y ago
  Make your own, with 100% butter. Takes 5 minutes, and tastes so much better it's not funny. Palm oil is barely fit for human consumption, and it tastes bad. When mass manufactured products are no longer fit for purpose, it's time to ditch them. I do the same for bread as well. Just bought a 25kg sack of organic white flour which will keep me going for a few months. With practice, takes just 10 minutes to make a loaf of bread or some batch rolls (without a breadmaker). The taste, consistency and quality of it is again much better than any of the mass-produced stuff, which makes it worth that little bit of time to prepare.
- yesenadam 8y ago
  I used to have a recipe for cookies I called "15 minute cookies" because you could be eating them 15 minutes after you thought of making them - yes, including mixing, preheating oven, cooking - which was always an irresistible thought. Sadly I lost the recipe, must find it again! Really, it's so easy to make cookies (far easier than bread), you should try. And you can add whatever special ingredients you like.. Experimenting is fun.
  - aembleton 8y ago
    https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/12665/15-minute-cookies https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/12665/15-minute-cookies
    - yesenadam 8y ago
      Hmm thanks..but mine didn't have chocolate, butter or eggs or vanilla extract. (Am vegan, don't like chocolate or vanilla extract) The only wet thing was oil I think. Just dry ingredients (maybe flour/oats/coconut/seeds/spices or whatever you want) + sugar + oil. It was 7 minutes cooking.

llukas 8y ago

If is perfectly feasible. How often do you buy new products? I skipped major part of sweets that I liked and that is mostly it. Wasn't big problem either. But saddest part is that in EU boycott worked and it changed nothing due to use of palm oil in biofuels - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/26/how-palm-oil-ban-has-made-the-eu-a-dirty-word-in-malaysia https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/26/how-palm-oil-b...

rhn_mk1 8y ago
> If is perfectly feasible. Only when it comes to food. It's impossible to ascertain the source of cleaning products' ingredients.
hedvig 8y ago
Well, probably a majority of us agree that this can be controlled from the top and not have to cross our fingers and rely on low-informed consumers to change things.

AndrewSChapman 8y ago

It is absolutely feasible. I do it. My wife does it. There are alternatives for almost everything, you just have to look and spend a bit of time researching. Sometimes you have to order products on the Internet instead of getting them in your local supermarket. Also, if a product just mentions "vegetable fat" it's more than likely palm.