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ICON DECODER

COMPANY RATINGS
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Note: Ratings are based on company record, including parent companies. They are not a comment on the product itself.
> more about ratings

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What do you value?
> Animal testing
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> Palm oil
> See all
 

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Cooking Oil

The Guide > Food & Drink > Baking & Cooking > Cooking Oil 

    Industry Alert: Genetic Engineering

Genetic Engineering

Currently the only genetically engineered (GE) food crops commercially produced in Australia are cotton and canola. Both these can be labelled under 'vegetable oil' without any indication that they are GE. Processed food commonly contains GE ingredients, mainly through imported corn, soy and cottonseed oil.

GE crops pose a very real threat to our food because, as living organisms, they can reproduce and spread and so once released they cannot be recalled. Their effects are irreversible.

Concerns over genetically engineered food include unknown health risks, threats to biodiversity, contamination of conventional and organic crops, increase in pesticide and herbicide use, and control over our food by multinational chemical companies who legally own the patents on the technology.  [More]
  • Look for foods labelled 'GM free', 'GE-free', 'Not genetically modified', certified 'Organic' & 'Bio-dynamic'.
  • Check the 'Greenpeace True Food Guide' for all brands guaranteed GE-free by their manufacturer (assurance they are not using GE ingredients anywhere in the food chain, including animal feed). See www.truefood.org.au  [GM-Free Australia Alliance]
  • Have your say and oppose GE food crops in Australia.  [MADGE]
  • Look for items labelled 'Product of Australia' (except food containing canola or cottonseed oil).

Palm Oil

Palm oil is found in roughly 50 per cent of all packaged products on supermarket shelves including shampoos, baking oil, chocolate, cosmetics, chips, cookies, margarine and soaps.

Unfortunately, not only does palm oil promote heart disease, but the vast plantations that grow oil palm trees have contributed to the destruction of the rainforest of South East Asia and threaten the survival of animals such as the Orangutan in Borneo, the Sumatran tiger, and Asian rhinoceros. Additionally, burning after deforestation accounts for significant greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this, it has recently been deemed a potential saviour as a renewable resource for use as a biofuel.
  • Palm oil may be in a product but labelled simply as 'vegetable oil'. An indicator however is if the nutritional panel lists saturated fat and it's higher than 50%, and yet there no animal fat listed as an ingredient, there is likely to be palm kernel oil, palm oil or coconut oil, as a component of 'vegetable oil' (most likely to be palm). See the various names for palm oil  [Palm Oil Investigations]
  • For a list of branded products that do not contain palm oil, see the 'Helping you buy responsibly' section on the Borneo Orangutan Survival website.  [Borneo Orangutan Survival]
  • Check out the Issues section of our website for more about palm oil  [ethical.org.au/issues]
BRAND COMPANY OWNED RATING
Chang's  Cypress & Sons   Australian Owned  Some praise, no criticism2
Golden Fields  Steric   Australian Owned  Some praise, no criticism2
Colossus  Colossus Food   Australian Owned  No rating3
Raw C  Natural Raw C   Australian Owned  No rating3
Suncoast Gold  Patons Macadamia   Australian Owned  No rating3
Pressed Purity  Proteco   Australian Owned  No rating3
Grove  Avocoda Oil NZ   NZL  No rating3
Alfa One  Walter & Wild   NZL  No rating3
ProChef  Pascoe's   (Pact Group) Australian Owned  Praises, some criticism4
Pure Vita  Aldi Australia   (Aldi South) GER  Praises, some criticism4
Family Choice  Aceford   (Hap Seng) MYS  Criticism, some praise5
Azalea  Deoleo Australia   (CVC) UK  Criticisms6
Crisco  Goodman Fielder   (Wilmar) SGP  Criticisms6
ETA  Goodman Fielder   (Wilmar) SGP  Criticisms6
Gold'nCanola  Goodman Fielder   (Wilmar) SGP  Criticisms6



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