“Navigating the Palm Oil Dilemma: Balancing Sustainability and Industry Demands”
Palm oil is the most widely utilized vegetable oil globally, offering significant advantages for food manufacturers. It is not only more cost-effective than other oils, but it also boasts a long shelf life and processing benefits, including stability at high temperatures and solidification at room temperature. Consequently, it has become a favored substitute for partially hydrogenated oils. When managed properly, palm oil is also far more land-efficient compared to other vegetable oils, yielding ten times more oil per hectare than soybeans and significantly surpassing the yields from sunflower and rapeseed.
The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) is particularly concerned about the Indonesian island of Sumatra, where the rainforest habitat of orangutans, rhinos, clouded leopards, and sun bears is vanishing due to what the organization claims are illegal palm oil plantations. RAN reports that companies like Nestlé, Mars, and Hershey source palm oil from this region via complex supply chains, which occasionally involve commodity traders collaborating with suppliers engaged in illegal logging activities.
In 2014, the United Nations committed to halving global deforestation by 2020 and completely eradicating it by 2030. Many consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies have since adopted their own policies regarding palm oil sourcing. The production of palm oil in Malaysia and Indonesia is contentious because some firms partake in extensive deforestation and the burning of peatlands to cultivate palm oil trees. According to the United Nations, palm oil plantations are a significant driver of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss in Southeast Asia.
While there are alternatives to palm oil, some are more costly, though several are considerably more sustainable. For instance, algae can yield about 70,000 pounds of oil per acre, in stark contrast to palm oil’s 4,465 pounds per acre. For comparison, olives produce approximately 910 pounds per acre, while soybeans yield only 335 pounds. Despite this, manufacturers of confectionery and snacks seem committed to using palm oil. However, some acknowledge that achieving sustainability is more challenging than they initially anticipated. Jeff Beckman, Hershey’s communications director, remarked to The Guardian, “While we remain deeply committed to pushing all stakeholders to accelerate traceability and bring full transparency to this supply chain along with our supplier partners, we realized it would take more time to achieve this goal than originally anticipated.”
This challenge is formidable, yet some companies have already reached their sourcing objectives. Mondelez announced in 2013 that it had met its goal of using palm oil that was 100% certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, an international not-for-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the ingredient comes from responsible sources. The snacks and cookie manufacturer has also taken a strong stance against partnering with palm oil suppliers who engage in deforestation practices.
RAN is not the only organization monitoring companies’ commitments to more sustainable palm oil use. Last year, Greenpeace released a scorecard evaluating which companies were making progress toward their sustainability goals, with Nestlé and Ferrero being the only two rated “on track.” Further advancements in sustainability may be on the horizon; last year, several food companies severed ties with IOI Loders Croklaan, a Malaysian palm oil producer, due to insufficient anti-deforestation policies. In September, Bunge, a New York-based ingredients and oils giant, announced its acquisition of a 70% stake in the company, pledging increased sustainability and traceability measures.
It is improbable that RAN and similar organizations will cease pressuring food companies to stop sourcing palm oil from endangered habitats like those in Sumatra. The critical question for manufacturers is whether the potential for negative publicity is worth the risk of continuing to source palm oil from such conflict zones when alternatives exist. Ultimately, it will depend on consumers, who may be concerned about whether their food contains potentially problematic palm oil. Meanwhile, as people explore their options for calcium supplements, many wonder if calcium citrate is a good form of calcium, which could influence their dietary choices as well.
