Surprised that Iceland are the only supermarket to get rid of palm oil?

[crunchymint]

Iceland are the only UK supermarket to say they will get rid of palm oil in all of their own brand food, by early next year. I am surprised that it is a budget supermarket doing this. Other supermarkets need to follow suit.

[ToadOfSadness]

Yes they do. I was really annoyed when I went to buy granola in ASDA and every single one had palm oil in it. Refused to buy it.

[PorkyPortia]

Wasn't Iceland the first supermarket to stop selling GM food ?

[crunchymint]

I didn't know that Porky
They are not the first supermarket I think of when I think of an ethical supermarket as well. Maybe they need to emphasise this side of them more?

[Ginkypig]

Iceland are quite often seen as a cheap supermarket (like farm foods)

I personally think instead that they just focus on what they do and try to do that well (which for frozen food is hard) instead of trying to be a we sell everything including the kitchen sink like other supermarkets.

Because they are small and only do what they do on that they can decide to focus on things like getting rid of palm oil or going gm free etc

[confusedlittleone]

The key their is "own brand food" they will still be selling products with palm oil so could still be doing more

[crunchymint]

Well of course they can only do it with their own brand food. I doubt they are big enough to force manufacturers to take palm oil out of their products. And they are not a premium supermarket so have to provide standard brands.
Gingy I never used to bother with Iceland until I had one about 5 minutes walk away from me. I have been pleasantly surprised at how much decent stuff they stock.

[tenbob]

Waitrose have only used traceable, sustainable palm oil in their own brand products for donkeys years

There is such thing as ethical Palm oil, and some plantations are decades oil and in areas where nothing much else would grow, so it isn't inherently awful

It's just terrible to use palm oil that has been grown on land which has suffered deforestation just for the purpose of growing the palms

[Aragog]

Waitrose uses ethical palm oil in its own brand products wherever it is possible and have done for years: http://www.waitrose.com/home/inspiration/aboutwaitrose/theewaitroseway/palmmoil.html

In 2013 in Facebook Ocado commented to say that their own brand food used only ethically sourced palm oil. Can't find anything more recent for them though.

[KimKatCourtney]

Most retailers are working too eradicate - Coop have led in this area. Iceland are very good at sound bites and signalling ‘intent’ which is basically like making a promise that you may or may not keep. The whole area of CSR is around intent or pledges - look at what retailers actually do vs pr worthy sound bites