Food Standards and Palm Oil Labelling

In an increasing consumer choice and concern issue, labelling of palm oil use in consumer goods has increasingly been of concern to Federal Parliament and Food Standards Australia and New Zealand.

What is Palm Oil?

Palm oil is a versatile and cheap substitute for other oils used on the market like olive oil, vegetable oil, canola oil and sunflower oil.

As stated by Choice, "Palm oil is the most consumed edible oil in the world, accounting for 33% of total production in 2009 (olive oil accounted for just two per cent). India was the largest consumer of palm oil in the world in 2009. With the country's consumption more than doubling from 2005 to 2009, its population’s obesity rates are growing alongside."

What is the Issue?

Although the crop grows quickly, it prolongs shelf life and is cheap to produce, palm oil also accounts for much of the current issues with rising obesity in populations including Australia. This is due to the fact that palm oil is currently not labelled with the claim "that consumers concerned about the saturated fat content in palm oil could see this in the nutrition information panel of food labels."

The Legislation

So far, there have been three attempts to introduce a Food Standards Amendment (Truth in Labelling - Palm Oil) Bill in 2009, 2010 and a private member's bill in 2011. All bills have failed or been removed from the notice paper for various reasons such as government proroguement before election and removal from the notice paper.

After the 2011 bill, following a comprehensive review of food labelling, it was recommended that palm oil be specifically labelled. In response, Food Standards Australia New Zealand announced that the development of a technical evaluation and advice based on this recommendation would be a priority.

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