The UU Librarian's species under threat from Bread and Crisps

[Angua]

BBC

Shoppers 'threat to orang-utans'


Demand for crisps, bread, lipstick and soap could drive orang-utans to extinction, research suggests.

With the amount of Rapeseed fields out in the countryside why cannot manufacturers use an alternative to Palm oil?

We could start a boycott of those firms who use palm oil.I need to lose weight anyway..I can give up crisps,I don't use lippy and I could just buy my own breadmaker..As for the soap I did used to make my own and you can make it with other products.Palm oil is NOT a necessity.There are lots of differen oils that would work.I think we need Theodoric's input here though.

I'm free

The reason palm oil is used for so many products is because it is one of the most saturated vegetable oils & hence, is solid at 'room temperature', but melts at just below body temperature.

Several implications arise from this - obviously the melting point characteristics are ideal for cosmetics, especially as the refined oil is virtually odourless.

Food wise it can affect texture (shortening baked goods, for example), but a major use is as a frying oil - mainly because it is bland, very stable at high temperatures, doesn't oxidise (go rancid) quickly, or go gummy & has a high 'flash point' so is relatively safe.

The above characteristics can be obtained from other vegetable oils, but usually only by hydrogenating them - which makes trans acids, which are bad for you, blah blah.

So that is why demand for palm oil is so high (price is a factor, also).

Personally I deplore the destruction of the Orangs habitat, they are such fantastic creatures, and more could be done by the likes of the supermarkets, to demand 'eco friendly' products - ethical trading is still a long way from where it should be, in my opinion.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Demand for eco friendly products and ethical trading, is in a large part also about consumer education. Before this thread, I didn't know what palm oil was, where it might have come from (presumably it can't be farmed in other areas away from the oragnutan's habitat), or what it might be used in.

I suppose Palmolive soap might have given me a clue as to a constituent, but was never aware that crisps and the like used palm oil - I just assumed a vegetable oil.

Problem is that the products we want, and no doubt the alternative to those products, will all have some form of environmental impact.