Kit Kat has a break from orangutan killing palm oil

After a two month campaign by Greenpeace (UK) against the use of palm oil by Nestlé over concerns about deforestation and the effect on orangutans, the company has just announced its suspension of purchase from suppliers involved in deforestation

The supply chain of palm oil is very complex and there are no quick and easy solutions. We have conducted an in depth analysis of our supply chain in order to create transparency and detailed action plans. Read more about the complexity of the palm oil supply chain in the RSPO Supply Chain Systems Overview (pdf, 3.95MB)

As a first step, we have suspended all purchases from Sinar Mas, which has admitted to mistakes in the area of deforestation. We can also confirm that we have made arrangements with a number of suppliers, including Cargill, to suspend purchasing from Sinar Mas for delivery to our European factories.

The YouTube video was quite graphic



See Greenpeace's response following the announcement by Nestlé.

According to Australia's Heart Foundation, palm oil isn't that healthy.

Palm oil is a vegetable oil derived from the oil of the palm plant and does not contain any cholesterol. However, palm oil is one of the two tropical oils that the Heart Foundation recommends to avoid (the other is coconut oil). Palm oil contains 55% saturated fat, 8% polyunsaturated and 37% monounsaturated. While it contains no trans fat, it contains too much saturated fat and not enough unsaturated fat to be recommended by the Heart Foundation.

Unfortunately in Australia, palm oil is usually shown in ingredients lists as 'vegetable' oil.