Number Four

I'm back! I know it's been ages but I have still been on the hunt for palm oil free things. I haven't been able to do anything internet related for 3 weeks whilst moving into my lovely new flat in London... but I finally have internet back, although the connection is about the speed of a very small snail in no hurry to get anywhere. So bear with me...

But at last, here it is, Number Four:

... I know, more crisps!!! But I am just a tiny bit addicted to cheese puffs, I love them soo much. My very first conversation with my best friend went something along the lines of 'I love Wotsits' to which she replied 'I love Quavers.' (over our packed lunches in year one at primary school...)

But student debt has gave me the discovery of Tesco's own brand 'cheese puffs' (which are wonderfully palm oil free) and now if I splash out on Wotsits, they taste funny.

Number Three

A new (sort-of) bargain: 'Yeo Valley Organic Spreadable Butter'. I suppose this is a substitute for margarine, which I would normally buy, but it seems like all regular 'spreads' contain palm oil, which I'm guessing is because it helps it spread... but this is my solution, mostly butter and a bit of sunflower oil, which makes it taste super good too. Also it's organic so an extra bonus? It does make it a bit more pricey, £2.69, but at the moment it is on buy 2 for £4 at Tesco so if you like butter...

Full ingredients list is Organic Butter, Organic Sunflower Oil, Water, Salt.

Number Two

Popcorn! Yaay, I am excited about this palm oil free discovery because it is Butterkist Cinema Sweet Popcorn, which is the popcorn stocked at Vue cinemas (and I think Odeon too?) and it is definatley one of my favourite things!!! Munch away at the cinema everyone...

Ingredients are as follows:

Maize, Sugar, Soya Oil, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithin)

Number One

Hula Hoops are palm oil free, hooray! The oil they use is 100% sunflower, which makes them stand out against alot of suspicious 'vegetable oil' using crisps.

Here is the full ingredients list:
Potato (Potato Starch & Dried Potato), Sunflower Oil, Rice Flour, Maize Flour, Salt, Potassium Chloride.

Palm Oil = Bad News for Rainforests (and Orangutans)

Palm oil frightens me because it seems to be in everything, which means alot of rainforest is being destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations. We shouldn't be destroying rainforests. Ever.

But I know I can't stop the use of palm oil completley, it is just too good for supermarkets. I know it will probably still work its way into my house in some of the things that I buy. But this is my challenge:

Find 100 products that are palm oil free things.

These are going to not only be new things that I buy, but they are going to be things that are my favourites too. That way, I can enjoy them properly, they can be justified favourites and hopefully you will like them too! Also, so that I am not cheating in my race to find 100 things, they will all be products that you would normally suspect to contain palm oil (so they will hopefully be happy discoveries, or newly found palm oil free alternatives!)

I hope I encourage you to start reading food labels too, it gets addictive. Beware 'vegetable oil'. It is likely to be palm oil in disguise. When I see 'vegetable oil' on packages of my favourite things, I am going to investigate by writing to companies and asking for a proper ingredients list, so that I can find out if palm oil is hidden away inside of something. So if you feel the urge to write to manufacturers too, please let me know how you get on! I will also be asking where any palm oil that is used comes from. Palm oil that is sourced sustainably is probably still not perfect, but it's got to be better.

Wish me luck!