Palm Oil Free Guide to Christmas Food

This Christmas, you can buy your mince pies, chocolates, biscuits and Christmas puddings from companies that only use sustainable palm oil. Or you could choose to boycott palm oil and buy palm oil free products. 

We've put together a list of companies which receive our best rating for palm oil, either for being a palm oil free company or for using best practices in their sourcing.

For example, a company must have all of the possible palm products (palm oil, palm kernel oil, palm oil derivatives) used in its global supply chain certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) plus something extra like full disclosure of volumes, suppliers, or traceability to the mill. Or else a high proportion certified and even more other positive initiatives.

The higher proportion of palm sourced from 'segregated' supply chains, the easier it is for a company to achieve our best rating.

Another way companies can demonstrate engagement on this issue is by sourcing palm oil that is certified as organic.

For all of the best-rated companies, we list their individual products that are palm oil free.

See our full list of palm-oil free products. 

Palm oil free Mince Pies

Palm oil is often used in the vegetable suet in the mincemeat. All the palm oil free mince pies listed below are organic, apart from Iceland's.

Vegan, organic and palm oil free - Artisan Bread Organic (currently not trading) and Authentic Bread.

Make your own mince pies

You could make your own mince pies using palm oil free mincemeat.

Authentic Bread Co, Infinity Foods, and Meridian all sell jars of organic, vegan, suet-free mincemeat.

Or you could make your own mincemeat without suet.

Palm Oil Free Christmas Puddings

Vegan, organic and palm oil free - Riverford, Infinity Foods

Vegan and palm oil free - Kite, Iceland

Organic and palm oil free - Roots and Wings, Abel & Cole

Christmas Puddings with sustainable palm oil

The following company gets our best rating for their palm oil policy and sell Christmas puddings containing RSPO certified sustainable or organic palm oil:

• Authentic Bread Company, Organic palm oil used in its Luxury Vegan Christmas Puddings 

Palm Oil Free Chocolate and gift chocolates

All the companies below only make palm oil free chocolate.

The companies below make chocolate that is palm oil free but also they make some chocolate with palm oil in it. Below we list their palm oil free varieities.

Chocolate containing sustainable palm oil

The following companies get our best rating for their palm oil policy and sell some chocolate that contains RSPO certified sustainable or organic palm oil:

• Biona, organic certified palm oil, all chocolate organic

Read our ethical shopping guide chocolate for companies' overall rating for corporate responsibility.

Biscuits

The biscuits most likely to be palm oil free are those that are 'all butter' or the more expensive 'cookies'.

Biscuits containing sustainable palm oil

The following companies get our best rating for their palm oil policy and sell biscuits containing RSPO certified sustainable, Fairtrade or organic palm oil:

• Island Bakery, uses sustainable palm in Sweet FA biscuits
• Against the Grain, use organic palm oil. All biscuits vegan and gluten free
• Doves Farm, use organic palm oil. All biscuits are organic and vegan 
• Traidcraft, use FairPalm (its own fairly traded palm oil)
• Biona, all biscuits and cookies contain organic palm oil. All vegan except blueberry and rapsberry cookies.
• Nairn's, all contain palm oil. Everything, except cheese and salted caramel varieties, is vegan.
• Hill's, all contain palm oil. Some are vegan.

See our biscuits product guide to see how the companies compare on their overall corporate responsibility. 

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