This post was originally published on Good on You
New data from Good On You reveals that 97% of analysed beauty brands use palm oil in at least some of their products. But despite its widespread use, palm oil is hard to spot on ingredient labels and has an environmental impact, too.
Here, beauty reporter Theresa Yee explains what palm oil is, its sustainability challenges, and why boycotting it in favour of alternatives isn’t as straightforward as it sounds.
Palm oil: A hidden ingredient with many different names
Despite what a prolific commodity palm oil is in the beauty industry, most consumers wouldn’t immediately know it, because the ingredient is often disguised behind a pseudonym. In fact, there are more than 200 different names for palm oil, so unless a consumer knows every single one, they’re unlikely to be able to identify it on an ingredient list.
It is much easier to identify palm oil in food ingredients due to stricter regulations on labelling. Since 2014, the European Union’s Food Information Regulation has required businesses to explicitly disclose that they are using palm oil (using the actual term) on every single food product rather than simply putting vague or generic names such as vegetable oil.
However, it’s a different story in cosmetics as this regulation does not apply to non-food products. Becca Willcox, beauty ratings manager at Good on You explains: “Unlike food manufacturers, beauty brands are not required to disclose the type of vegetable oil used in their products, making it difficult for consumers to know if a cosmetic product contains palm oil. Moreover, the palm oil derivatives used in cosmetics may have gone through multiple chemical transformations to produce ingredients such as capric triglyceride or sodium lauryl sulfate. This can conceal environmental and labour risks associated with palm oil production further back in the supply chain without traceability to the source.”
Palm oil or its derivatives are often purposefully masked and listed under other names, such as cetearyl glucoside, elaesis guineensis, etyl palmitate, and sodium palm kernelate, to name but a few—technical terms that consumers are probably not familiar with. And very often when we do see the word palm oil mentioned on beauty packaging labels, it’s usually in the context of promoting palm-oil-free formulas, which are increasingly popular as more information becomes available about the impacts of the ingredient.
Palm oil is in a ton of products
Chances are you’ve heard of palm oil, because this ubiquitous ingredient is in countless everyday consumer packaged goods including chocolate, cookies, and cakes—to the extent that roughly 50% of the processed goods stocked on supermarket shelves contain palm oil, according to WWF.
Palm oil comes from the fruit of the oil palm tree, which is native to West Africa but was taken to tropical regions of Southeast Asia in the 1960s, and that’s where most of today’s palm oil is produced and then exported to regions like China, India and Europe. Indonesia and Malaysia are the two largest palm oil producers in the world, accounting for roughly 90% of global palm oil output.
Today, palm oil (PO) and palm kernel oil (PKO) derivatives are the two most commonly used ingredients in the beauty industry—roughly 70% of all cosmetics contain one of them, according to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The difference between these two oils is that palm oil is extracted by squeezing the fleshy part of the fruit pulp, while kernel oil is obtained by crushing the large seed inside of the fruit—both types can offer numerous functional benefits when used in cosmetic products.
And new data from Good On You’s Beauty Sustainability Scorecard reveals that of the 239 brands surveyed—from industry giants to small start-ups—a staggering 97% of beauty brands use palm oil in at least some of their products
But what exactly makes palm oil such a valued beauty ingredient?
“Palm oil is a versatile ingredient that holds a plethora of beauty benefits,” says Maya Regan, assistant trends editor for beauty at the forecasting and insights company Stylus. “Aside from its function as a natural emulsifier and preservative to extend the lifespan of beauty products, its moisturising properties provide a creamy skin-friendly texture for cosmetics like soaps and lotions.” And unlike animal oils, palm oil doesn’t have a strong scent, making it highly desirable and adaptable for many different products.
Roughly 70% of all cosmetics contain either palm oil or palm kernel oil
Rising demands for vegetable oils and a greater desire for processed consumer goods in the food and cosmetics industry have contributed to an exponential increase in palm oil production in the last few decades. For instance, ConfectionaryNews highlighted that between 1970 and 2020, global palm oil production grew from 2m tonnes to roughly 80m tonnes. And this number will only increase in the coming years, with data suggesting that the global palm oil market size could reach USD $100bn by 2030—up from $70.4bn in 2023.
The trouble with palm oil
Palm oil itself isn’t a problem—its bad reputation comes from the unsustainable farming methods used to produce it, which impacts the environment, climate, wildlife, and local communities.
“Unsustainable palm oil is known to have a devastating impact on the environment, from bad farming methods and large-scale deforestation to habitat loss and releasing significant greenhouse gas emissions,” says Regan.
The clearance of forest land in places like Borneo and Sumatra to grow palm oil, for instance, has caused mass deforestation and destroyed habitats of already endangered species such as the orangutan, pygmy elephant and Sumatran rhinos.
Palm oil production has also been associated with corruption including child labour, exploitation of workers, forced evictions and land conflicts between Indigenous communities due to land-grabbing by large-scale plantations. What’s more, the burning of forests to make way for palm oil plantations releases hazardous pollutants into the air, which can pose serious health issues for local communities in nearby areas.
But boycotting palm oil isn’t a straightforward answer
Given the substantial negative environmental and ethical impacts of palm oil, should we boycott it as a beauty ingredient? Well, it’s complex, because like many things in sustainability, there are tradeoffs.
Firstly, ditching palm oil completely will only shift the problem elsewhere. For example, if brands switch to other vegetable oils, such as coconut oil, it wouldn’t necessarily mitigate the negative impacts. In fact, it could actually be much worse for the environment as these ingredients have a much lower yield per hectare than palm oil so it would require more land mass to grow the ingredient to meet global demands, which could further add to biodiversity loss and deforestation.
The oil palm is an incredibly land-efficient tree that produces generous yields year-round using relatively little space. It has a much higher yield than any other vegetable oil, producing four times more oil per hectare than sunflower or rapeseed oil and 10 to 15 times more than coconut oil. It’s estimated that oil palms can supply 35% of the world’s vegetable oil demand on just 10% of land.
Secondly, at the other end of the argument is the fact that millions of small-scale farmers depend on palm oil production, and shifting away from the ingredient “could have a detrimental effect on the livelihoods of these people,” Regan says.
Is certified palm oil a sustainable option?
A better solution than simply boycotting is moving to more sustainable and certified palm oil practices that respect wildlife, people and habitats. And the good news is that this is possible.
Organisations including The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which was created in 2004 in response to growing concerns about the negative environmental and social impacts of commodity, have created recognised standards for better palm oil production, like the certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) seal.
The CSPO seal can help to assure that the palm oil used is produced in a more socially and environmentally responsible way across the supply chain—from sourcing to production—as well as being grown on certified plantations. This is monitored annually to ensure companies are complying and regularly making improvements to reduce their impacts.
More recently, companies such as NATRUE and COSMOS have updated their criteria for certification of natural and organic cosmetics to include a new requirement for sustainable palm oil, which must now be RSPO-certified.
Research suggests that the average carbon footprint of certified sustainable palm oil is 38% lower than for non-certified oil, but sadly the number of beauty brands actually using certified sustainable palm oil remains relatively small. “Almost all of the brands we rated use palm oil or ingredients that could be derived from palm oil, but only around half of these brands state that they source their palm oil from certified sources,” Willcox explains. Findings from Good On You’s Beauty Sustainability Scorecard show that 97% of the 239 brands surveyed use palm oil in some of their products, a mere 17% are using the RSPO-certified kind, while 56% of brands are not using palm oil from any certified sources. And the RSPO itself notes that only 19% of all palm oil produced globally is certified to its standards—so there’s still a long way to go.
Only around half of analysed brands that use palm oil state they source it from certified sources
Becca Willcox – beauty ratings manager, Good On You
One example of a brand using certified palm oil is UK company Faith in Nature, which states on its website that 12 out of the 115 ingredients used in its products that contain palm oil derivatives are all certified by the RSPO. And soap brand Eco Warrior offers a range of face and body bars and solid shampoos that uses 100% RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil and palm kernel oil.
The challenges of palm oil certifications
Although the RSPO’s certification offers a positive step forward in ensuring better palm oil production practices, it is not perfect—as is the case with many standards and certification schemes across fashion and beauty.
The Ethical Consumer outlined the most common complaints about the RSPO in 2021, which included a suggested lack of thorough auditing, lengthy delays in resolving complaints, and heavy influence from its members while labour unions and Indigenous communities were represented on a very small scale or not at all. And in October 2024, the organisation announced revisions to its standards which it said would strengthen the certification and allow for innovation, but critics have argued this could make it easier for forests to be cleared for palm oil plantations, among other issues.
However, more sustainable palm oil production has to start somewhere, and the RSPO’s certification can help to promote greater transparency and management of the palm oil supply chain, and encourage brands to report annually on their palm oil sourcing. “Although it’s not perfect, the sourcing of certified palm oil demonstrates a brand’s efforts to enhance ingredient transparency and traceability and often means improved environmental practices across the supply chain,” Willcox says.
Where do we go from here?
Another solution is to source palm oil from sources with certified organic status or evidenced regenerative practices, says Dirk-Jan Oudshoorn, founder and CEO of Forestwise, a supplier that produces sustainable, wild-harvested rainforest ingredients for the cosmetics and food sectors. “Some companies have proven that it is not only possible to produce palm oil in that way, but also more profitable, whilst improving the soil quality and creating better working conditions. Beauty companies have the power to demand these practices from their suppliers, in case they are not yet working in that way.”
There is a timely need and collective responsibility from brands to take more actions to improve palm oil production all along the supply chain and support sustainable initiatives that prioritise environmental and social responsibility to reduce impact.
Regan believes it is essential for them to shift to sustainable sources and ensure production processes adhere to the RSPO principles and criteria that meet social and environmental guidelines: “Beauty brands should invest in and support smallholder programmes and sustainable landscape initiatives.”
There is also a need for brands and governments to implement clearer and more transparent ingredient labels when it comes to using palm oil in cosmetics.
Consumers can also play a part in the palm oil conversation by demanding greater transparency and challenging brands and businesses to reveal where they source and how they source their palm oil from, as well as choosing beauty products made with certified palm oil that has been produced ethically.
The post The Palm Oil Paradox—Why Boycotting the Beauty Ingredient Isn’t an Easy Answer appeared first on Good On You.
0 Comments