to attempt to give up palm oil and wonder about chocolate

[somebrightmorning]

....if I ate less but more expensive choc would that do the trick? Are there chocolate brands without palm oil?

This link gives a good guide

www.ethicalconsumer.org/palm-oil/palm-oil-free-chocolate

Think Lindt chocolate is palm oil free, but not the truffles.

I don't think that aldi and lidl chocolate IS palm oil free - rather they claim it is responsibly sourced .

Iceland are streets ahead - they've eliminated palm oil from ALL their it own brand products.

Devine is gorgeous and doesn't use any palm oil. Can be a bugger to get ahold of though.

Hotel Chocolat are also palm oil free although probably a bit too expensive to be an everyday thing.

Avoiding palm oil isn't the answer to the problem. The palm oil issue is much more nuanced, and the alternatives potentially worse.
Even the World Wildlife Fund doesn't advocate eliminating it. Read para 6 of this link.

www.wwf.org.uk/updates/8-things-know-about-palm-oil

If you can go to organic chocolate it is very often palm oil free, or what is in there will be ethically sourced. Organic chocolate tastes amazing so it is easier to eat less of it.

As you've said OP, all good food should be more expensive than we are used to because we only get food cheaply by not paying the real costs eg pollution, deforestation, cheap labour etc. it is a shock to the bank account but its worth it.

I've gone off Green and Blacks since they started non-organic production, and because of their parent company, but Waitrose Duchy have just started making some organic chocolate which is really nice so we will be having that from now on.

Hotel Chocolat used to be palm oil free- no longer.

And I won't use "sustainably produced" palm oil either, because I don't think the certification is worth the paper it's printed on!

And whilst the yield per hectare of palm oil may be higher, rapeseed oil and sunflower oil can be produced on more marginal land, and without deforestation.

That link is very interesting, Sara. What would help is if every product containing palm oil had to be labelled prominently as such (separate to the ingredients list) and then the producers in the RSPO scheme could display their logo beside it.

Tony, all day long

Darkmilk is lovely as well

Rather surprisingly, Guylian chocolate is palm oil free. I know some people aren't keen, but I like it.

I've asked for a big bar of Chocolonely for Christmas, I wouldn't pay that price myself

Is there a palm oil-free equivalent to Nutella?

filka we have the Biona organic hazlenut chocolate spread sometimes and it is palm oil free and really nice! It did once have palm oil, but not now. I love it on crumpets but no one makes organic crumpets yet!

biona.co.uk/product/biona-organic-milk-chocolate-hazelnut-spread/

Its also really important to know where soya products come from and organic soya production will ensure that it is sustainably grown and with zero or minimum pesticides etc.

@saraclara thanks for posting the WWF link. I was just coming to say that's exactly what our local zoo advocates, which made sense to me. I later heard it from David Attenburgh on the One Planet series.
We need sustainable palm oil. If the bottom falls out of the palm oil business, farmers/landowners will grow something else still cutting down rainforests. Making demand for sustainable products in managed plantations is better for the environment AND livelihoods.

Sainsbury's value dark chocolate palm oil free - delicious and certainly inexpensive.

Yep @HappyHolidays75 The alternatives to palm oil would actually result in larger areas of forest being devastated. As the link says, palms are much more efficient per hectare than the alternatives.

The message doesn't seem to be getting through though, and people are avoiding palm oil altogether (which could cause more problems) rather than encouraging sustainable production.

Lindt is without palm oil - except for some chocs with fillings

For all brands normally free of palm oil, check labels if you get filled chocs

Problem with palm oil for me is I can't stand the taste of it. Perhaps I just need to give up chocolate altogether