Palm oil is used widely in the food, cosmetics and toiletry industries.
What is Palm Oil?
Palm oil is obtained from the fruit of the African oil palm tree, which flourishes in tropical countries, where there is substantial rainfall and heat. It's the second-most produced oil after soy bean oil and is grown and produced primarily in Borneo and Sumatra.
So what is the issue?
Demand for palm oil production is at an all time high. Not only is it used to make biofuel (biofuels are produced from foodstuffs like sugar and corn, and produce less greenhouse gases than petrol when burnt) but also, in the food industry's drive to remove trans fats from food, palm oil is increasingly used as a substitute.
This increased demand has led to massive deforestation of the Sumatran and Bornean rainforests. This, in turn, is leading to the threat of extinction of certain species, particularly the orang-utan and Sumatran tiger, whose habitat is rapidly decreasing as deforestation makes space for oil palm plantations.
ASDA's policy
We aim to bring our customers products grown or manufactured using the most sustainable methods available.
For this reason, ASDA became one of the first major retailers to be active members of the RSPO in 2006. The RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) is an organisation that promotes the growth and use of sustainable palm oil products, through setting global standards for members to meet. Our suppliers must buy from oil processors who are members of the RSPO.
In 2009 we committed to using RSPO certified palm oil in all our products by 2015. We also supported the call for an end to new plantings of palm oil plantations in threatened rainforests and peatlands in South East Asia.