Palm oil is used in many of the products on supermarket shelves, from margarine and chocolate to ice cream, soaps, cosmetics, and fuel for cars and power plants.
The reason why palm oil is so popular is because:
- It has great cooking properties – it maintains its properties even under high temperatures.
- Its smooth and creamy texture and absence of smell make it a perfect ingredient in many recipes, including baked goods (such as biscuits) in particular.
- It has a natural preservative effect which extends the shelf life of food products.
- It is also the highest-yielding vegetable oil crop, which makes it very efficient.
- It needs less than half the land required by other crops to produce the same amount of oil. This makes palm oil the least expensive vegetable oil in the world.
You can learn more about Palm Oil by visiting http://www.rspo.org/about/sustainable-palm-oil
The problem with palm oil: . . .
At Fife Zoo we have an annual palm oil audit to make sure that the products we use are palm oil free, or sourced from sustainable sources. Fife Zoo supports the work of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which has developed sustainability standards for palm oil produced with minimal impact on wildlife, local people and the environment.
