Not the good oil

January, 2012

The Adelaide Zoo has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons lately but as Kathryn Bellette discovers, their project to stop the devestation of orangutan habitat for palm oil production has attracted the support of another SA icon.

Zoos SA has joined forces with a local ice cream manufacturer in the campaign against clearance of Orangutan habitat to make way for palm oil plantations.

As most of the palm oil that ends up in our food is unsustainably harvested, Di West, Head of Wild Relationships at Zoos SA, has been quietly working on a mission to use only palm oil free products in the catering activities, shops and vending machines at Adelaide Zoo, Monarto Zoo and Warrawong. That’s a serious challenge when palm oil is found in seven out of every 10 packaged foods.

Turning her attention to ice cream, West discovered that a palm oil free product in quantities required by Zoos SA didn’t exist. After meeting resistance from the incumbent ice cream manufacturer to replace palm oil with an alternative, she approached local manufacturer Golden North. The Laura-based producer, run by five SA families, was keen to get involved in the cause. They have since altered recipes to remove palm oil not only from their impulse lines, but also from their entire product range. Golden North asked its suppliers to sign affidavits that guaranteed palm oil free products, resulting in a turnover of some of its own suppliers. 

It’s a textbook case of the market adapting to demand and something Zoos SA Chief Executive Officer Professor Chris West is  proud of. “How good is it that the only large ice cream manufacturer that makes palm oil free ice cream in Australia is Golden North?’’ In an added bonus, using a local manufacturer also reduces the greenhouse gas factor. “The fact that Golden North is local means that we can also reduce our transport related carbon footprint”.

Zoos SA is the biggest single outlet of impulse ice creams in SA, and the home-grown ice cream manufacturer has upgraded its factory to both increase the quantity of production and extend their range by increasing the number of products. Where the company didn’t have products preferred by Zoo patrons, Golden North has created them to meet demand. Through the international zoos network, the seeds of change are being sown. Across the Tasman, Auckland Zoo is following the lead of Zoos SA in negotiating with a local supplier to manufacture palm oil free ice cream. 

But wins of this calibre, albeit groundbreaking for the Zoo and Golden North, will not be enough to save the orangutan. About 85 percent of the world supply of palm oil is cultivated in Malaysia and Indonesia, particularly in Borneo and Sumatra, the last remaining habitat for the orangutan. With clearance in these areas estimated to be the equivalent of six football fields a minute, an estimated 50 orangutans are lost each week. Orangutan biologists predict the species will be lost in the wild within five to 10 years. If a change in the market demand away from palm oil were to occur, it needs to happen fast, but identifying palm oil as an ingredient in a product is not always easy.

Although it is a saturated fat, and for health reasons you may choose to avoid it, palm oil is currently one of many oils generically labelled as vegetable oil, making it impossible to tell if you are eating products containing palm oil. Food labelling laws currently pertain only to protection of public health and safety, where adequate information is required to be provided in labels to make an informed choice. This is clearly not the case with palm oil.

In a bid to address the labelling issues, zoos across the country joined forces with other organisations and individuals to participate in the 2009 Senate Economics Committee Inquiry into the Food Standards Amendment (Truth in Labelling Laws) Bill. This amendment incorporated a broadening of the law to include the mandatory labelling of palm oil on both environmental and health grounds. The Bill passed through the Senate, but the Federal Coalition subsequently had a change of heart and decided not to bring it to a vote in the Lower House, preventing the opportunity for consumers to be informed, a decision that appears to be in conflict with the strongly market-driven policies of the Coalition.

A Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 with the aim of promoting the growth and use of sustainable palm oil to enable communities reliant on palm oil production for their livelihoods to continue farming without environmental consequences. The practices used in these sustainable plantations increase yield, directly benefiting the industry. Currently, only one to four percent of the palm oil used in our food comes from sustainable RSPO certified sources. The aim was for mandatory labelling resulting from passage of the food standards amendment to include the RSPO approved “contains only RSPO certified palm oil’’ so consumers can make a real choice but regardless of mandatory labelling, RSPO is getting some traction. In 2010, Woolworths agreed to label palm oil on all their privately owned products, and the company has also committed to switching to sustainable palm oil by 2015.

As a consumer, it can still be challenging to identify palm oil in a product but there are resources available to help. Look for RSPO certification or products that voluntarily state their form of vegetable oil. Or visit the website orangutans.com.au

Here in South Australia, in addition to removing palm oil from its products and sponsoring the Zoo, Golden North is helping to raise awareness about the threat to the orangutan and will donate 10 cents to Adelaide Zoo for every two litre tub of ice cream sold through Foodland Supermarkets to March 31, 2012.