Cooking Oil

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]

Palm oil is found in one out of every ten supermarket products including shampoos, cooking oil, chocolate, cosmetics, chips, biscuits, margarine and soaps. The UN estimates that palm oil plantations are 'now the primary cause of permanent rainforest loss'. This threatens the survival of the Orang-utans, the Sumatran tiger and the Asian rhinoceros. Additionally, burning after deforestation accounts for significant greenhouse gas emissions -1,400 million tonnes of CO2 every year in Indonesia alone.

This product type is likely to contain antioxidants (additive numbers 310 - 385), can be associated with a range of food intolerance reactions such as irritability, restlessness and difficulty falling asleep; mood swings, anxiety, and depression. Antioxidants are commonly found in oils and fats, baked goods, muesli and snack bars, biscuits and peanut butter.  [Fedup]

This product type is likely to contain Hydrogenated or Trans Fats, associated with an increased risk of heart disease and sudden death from heart-related causes. The National Heart Foundation Tick program limits trans fats to less than 0.2% of fat for all products except margarine-type spreads and vegetable oils which must limit trans fat to less than 1% of total fat. Denmark and Switzerland have banned the sale of foods in which trans fat is more than 2% of the total fat content.  [Choice report]

Traces of fish. (Information compiled by Aduki)