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Did you see the palm oil infographic we released today? I hope so! If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out.
Were you shocked to find out that palm oil is in half of the products in your pantry? Yep, that’s right, palm oil is in roughly 50% of all packaged goods, from cookies, peanut butter, and breakfast cereal to cleaning products, laundry detergent, lipstick, and body lotion.
Are you wondering how that’s possible, because you don’t see the words “palm oil” on many of the ingredient labels in your pantry?
Here’s the scoop: Palm oil is often disguised, hidden behind many different ingredient names you probably don’t recognize when you go to your pantry or bathroom to check. To make things even more confusing for you as a consumer, sometimes companies will only disclose ingredients like “vegetable oil,” and though that vegetable oil blend likely contains palm oil, it’s not always a labeling requirement.
To help you navigate these confusing waters and avoid unwittingly voting for rainforest destruction with your dollars, here is a partial list of other names for palm oil-derived ingredients:*
- PKO – Palm Kernel Oil
- PKO fractionations: Palm Kernel Stearin (PKs); Palm Kernel Olein (PKOo)
- PHPKO – Partially hydrogenated Palm Oil
- FP(K)O – Fractionated Palm Oil
- OPKO – Organic Palm Kernel Oil
- Palmitate – Vitamin A or Asorbyl Palmitate (NOTE: Vitamin A Palmitate is a very common ingredient in breakfast cereals and we have confirmed 100% of the samples we’ve investigated to be derived from palm oil)
- Palmate
- Sodium Laureth Sulphate (Can also be from coconut)
- Sodium Lauryl Sulphates (can also be from ricinus oil)
- Sodium dodecyl Sulphate (SDS or NaDS)
- Elaeis Guineensis
- Glyceryl Stearate
- Stearic Acid
- Chemicals which contain palm oil
- Steareth -2
- Steareth -20
- Sodium Lauryl Sulphate
- Sodium lauryl sulfoacetate (coconut and/or palm)
- Hydrated palm glycerides
- Sodium isostearoyl lactylaye (derived from vegetable stearic acid)
- Cetyl palmitate and octyl palmitate (names with palmitate at the end are usually derived from palm oil, but as in the case of Vitamin A Palmitate, very rarely a company will use a different vegetable oil)
Learn More About the Commodities Driving Deforestation
*Disclaimer: Through research we’ve found that Vitamin A Palmitate can be derived from any combination of vegetable oil such as olive, coconut, canola and/or palm oil. Though in all the cases we’ve documented, companies use palm oil to make derivatives like Vitamin A Palmitate, it can be tricky to know for sure.
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Palm fruit oil
Palm Kernel Acid
Palm kernel cake
Palm Kernel Diethanolamide
Palm Kernel Fatty Acid
Palm Kernel Monoethanolamide
Palm kernel oil
Palm Methyl Ester
Palm Methyl Esters
Palm oil
Palm oleic acid
Palm olein
Palm stearine
Palm Sterine (PS)
Palmate
PALMESTER fatty esters
Palmfonate
Palmitamidopropyl betaine
Palmitamidopropyltrimonium chloride
Palmitate
Palmitic acid
Palmitic Acid (C16)
Palmitoleic acid
Palmitoyl acid
Palmitoyl alcohol
Palmitoyl myristyl serinate
Palmitoyl oligopeptide
Palmitoyl oxostearamide
Palmitoyl tetrapeptide-3
Palmosalt
Panthenol
Parfum
PBS Base
PEG – 7
PEG-100 stearate
PEG-12 Carnauba
PEG-15 stearyl ether
PEG-150 distearate
PEG-2 cetyl/stearyl ether
PEG-2 oleamine
PEG-20 stearate
PEG-4 laurate
PEG-40 stearate
PEG-8 distearate
PEG-8 stearate
PEG-80 sorbitan laurate
Pentaerythritol tetra caprai/caprylate
Pentaerythrityl tetracaprylate/tetracaprate
Pentaerythrityl tetraisostearate
Peptide complex
PG dicaprylate/caprate
Phenoxyethanol
PK DEA
PK MEA
PK oleic acid
Planta-Cleanse
Plantserv C
PME 1214 (Methyl Laurate Myristate)
PME 1218 (Methyl Laurate Stearate)
PME 1298 (Methyl Laurate) PME 1618
PME 1618 (Methyl Palmitate Oleate)
PME 1698 (Methyl Palmitate)
PME 1898 (Methyl Oleate – PK)
POFA (palm oil fuel ash)
Polyethylene (40) stearate (431)
Polyethylene glycol
polyglhcerol 3
Polyglycerate-60
Polyglycerol esters of fatty acids (475/E475)
Polyglycerol esters of interesterified ricinoleic acid (476/E476)
Polyglycerol-2 oleyl ether
Polyglyceryl-3 dilisostearate
Polyglyceryl-4 isostearate
Polyglyceryl-4 laurate
Polyglyceryl-4 oleyl ether
Polyoxyethylene Glycol (PEG-7)
Polyoxyethylene
Polyquaternium 7
Polysorbate 60 or polyoxyethylene (20) sorbitan monostearate (435/E435)
Polysorbate 65 or polyoxyethylene (20) sorbitan tristearate (436/E436)
Polysorbate 80 or polyoxyethylene (20) sorbitan monoolate (433/E433)
Polysorbate-20
Polysorbate-40
Polysorbate-60
Polysorbate-65
Polysorbate-80
Polysorbate-85
POME palm oil mill effluent
Potassium Cetyl Phosphate
Potassium Cocoate
Potassium myristate
Potassium Oleate & Olivate
Potassium Palmitate
Potassium stearate
PPG-15 stearate ether
PPG-4 Laureth-5
Propylene glycol
Propylene glycol esters of fatty acids (477/E477)
Propylene glycol laurate
Propylene glycol monoester
Propylene glycol myristate
Propylene glycol stearate