Effective as of June 2011, all foods containing palm oil must now clearly show it's presence on their labels due to a vote by the Australian Senate this week.

Until now, this very common oil has simply been labelled as vegetable oil.

This oil is harvested mainly in Malaysia and Indonesia, and is a significant sustainability issue, as much rainforest is destroyed to allow for the growth of the required palms. This has resulted in the loss of a large amount of wildlife, and some (including Zoos Victoria) suggest that as many as 50 Orangutans a week are killed as a result.

Palm oil has a high saturated fat content compared to many other oils and this was also one of the driving issues behind many of the Senators' votes. It is estimated that because of the widescale use of palm oil in the food industry, Australians could be consuming up to 10 kg of palm oil a year without even being aware of it.

The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) was vocal in it's opposition to the ammendment because of the sheer cost that is going to be involved in changing labelling across many products on our shelves. This will have a huge impact on food manufacturers in the next six months.

“Food labels should be about ensuring consumers have important product information relating to health, nutrition and safety. From a health perspective, it’s more important for consumers to know how much saturated fat is in a product rather than where the saturated fat is sourced,” said a release from the AFGC.

Palm oil being specifically labelled may be one of the first of the labelling changes due to, even in part,  sustainability. It is likely there will be more to come and food manufacturers would be sensible to consider the issue of sustainability of ingredients and packaging when preparing labels in future. It is almost inevitable that the use of the Sustainable Palm Oil Logo will become more common on our shelves due to this ammendment.