Supermarket, Iceland, has continued to sell own-brand products containing palm oil despite saying they were removing it from their own brand products by the end of 2018.
The retailer made a promise last April saying the demand for the oil was devastating rainforests in Asia. They also had their Christmas advert around stopping palm oil which was removed due to UK legislations surrounding political messaging on TV.
However, Iceland are still selling 28 own-brand products which contain palm oil or fat as well as 600 products from other brands. Iceland said they had “fulfilled” its promise and no longer made own-brand products containing palm oil – if this is the case why is it still being sold?
Iceland said: “If there is fresh food on our website that is labelled as still containing palm oil, this is a website issue and our team are working quickly to resolve.”
They insisted that there were no Iceland own-label fresh items that are still contained palm oil. In some stores they have the cartoon orangutan from the Christmas Advert by check outs for promotional campaigns.
Iceland’s promise, “The Iceland no palm oil pledge is that by the end of 2018, 100 per cent of the supermarket’s own label food lines will contain no palm oil, reducing demand for palm oil by more than 500 tonnes per year.”
What was the Christmas advert?
The advert was removed from TV screens when it was not approved because it breached political advertising rules. The advert highlighted the impact of palm oil on the rain-forest and orangutan, it has gone viral on social media. The advert was also dedicated to the 25 orangutans we lose every day. The advert is emotional, but it gives everyone the idea of what does on in rain-forests all around the world. The advert shows a devastating journey of Rang-utan being forced to leave her home after it being chopped down, this resulted her to hide in a girl’s bedroom as her habitat is destroyed. TV presenter James Corden shared the ad on twitter where it has reached more than 15 million views.
The advert was released on social media on following the removal on TV by the supermarket Iceland, the supermarket did this to show everyone the advert and to tell the story why it will not be on TV. The advert was originally made by the environmental organisation Greenpeace, this is the main reason it did not approve as it is the law not to advertise political issues on TV. The Iceland team had decided to remove palm oil from their own-labelled products by the end of the year; therefore, they teamed up with Greenpeace for the advert.
Iceland had spent £500,00 on putting the campaign together and insisted it had a number of booked TV slots ready to show. The advert campaign was brought to Iceland’s attention by Greenpeace, but they did not have the funds to show the advert, this is when Iceland decided to partner with the charity for the advert.
There were thousands of petition signatures to help the advert get back on TV, but no further progress was made even with the support from the public.
Palm oil production is said to be responsible for about 8% of the world’s deforestation between 1990 and 2008. Palm oil is used in almost half the products that are stocked by UK supermarkets and can be found in everything from shampoos to biscuits.
