Sustainable palm oil labels on confectionery

Confectionery accounted for only 1% of packaged food with sustainable palm oil labels in 2015, the latest research shows.

According to Euromonitor’s new Ethical Labels data, sales of packaged food products with sustainable palm oil labels totaled $220.40 million last year.

Out of seven product categories, confectionery was bottom of the list with $2.50m of sales, while sweets and savoury snacks ranked sixth at $9.10m and biscuits and snack bars came in at number four with $19.4m.

In contrast, $92.1m, or over 40%, of sustainable palm oil labels in packaged food came from breakfast cereals last year.

“With half of all food products containing palm oil, food companies are some of the biggest users of the ingredient, but there is increasing pressure on them to move to sustainably sourced variants,” says Ewa Hudson, head of health and wellness research at Euromonitor.

“Ironically, the popularity of palm oil was driven, in part, by consumer pressure on the food industry to switch to trans-fat-free alternatives to partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. However, consumer priorities are constantly changing and ethical consumption is flavour of the year in many markets.”

Palm oil is becoming an increasingly hot topic in the food industry and, according to Hudson, there is a growing awareness among consumers of food’s impact on the environment, from the larger issues of waste and greenhouse gas emissions, through to the use of palm oil and its environmental footprint.

“While there has been a concerted effort by the food industry to ensure the supply of palm oil is transparent and sustainable, companies could find that they have to pay a price one way or another if they don’t switch to certified palm oil soon: either by alienating green consumers, or having to pay a premium for an alternative sustainable ingredient,” she explains.

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Until next time.

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