After it was found Iceland were still selling their own brand products with palm oil in, they have now removed 17 of the products rather than cutting out palm oil from them.
The retailer promised to remove palm oil from all their own brand products by the end of 2018, but they could not meet the deadline. When it hit the news, they had not removed palm oil from their products they dropped 17 of their own brand products. Iceland have blamed a technical issue and did not want to “mislead” consumers.
The retailer said it was pushing its manufacturers hard to remove palm oil from items in their own brand products. They also said it “was not possible to remove palm oil at a manufacturing level in these products by 31 December 2018”.
Iceland said they have not given up on nine frozen and eight chilled lines that have not yet been reformulated which will have their branding reinstated by April. They have removed their branding of many products leaving them with no branding.
Consumer group Ethical Consumer said: “In the cases where they have failed to reformulate products, simply re-labelling them is counter-productive.”
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.
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.
