Hello supporters,
Firstly, thank you so much for your support that has got us so far. Secondly, Kellogg's were very positive and we feel that they wanted to do something about the topic but they are also very busy with cutting plastic and lowering sugar and salt in their products.
One of the first things we discussed were the different types of palm oil and which can be classed as sustainable. Here are the most common types of palm oil:
Identity preserved - You know exactly where the palm oil was grown from plant to shop shelf.
Segregated - You know where the palm oil has come from after the milling stage but it is classed as sustainable when it arrives at the mill.
Mass balance- Is when there might be some sustainable palm oil grown in a sustainable place but is mixed in the mill with other palm oil from plantations, therefore nobody knows whether the end product is sustainable or unsustainable as it may as well be both.
Green palm - Is when you buy certificates to improve things to give the palm oil industry the change to sort itself out.
In the UK, 98% of the palm oil Kellogg's use is identified and 2% is mass balance. In the EU, 70% is Green palm and 30% is identified and mass balance.
They promised to find out more about the dirty palm oil suppliers they work with and if there are any red lines, when they stop using one, if they will not clean up their act. Importantly, they agreed to publicly support Wilmar in it's new pledges to clean up their act, as well as use their influence to keep them focused.
We also talked to Kellogg's about putting a logo on their products that do not have palm oil in them so people don't need to waste their time scanning labels. They seemed keen on that, so are trying to find out what the industry is doing on this.
Kellogg's also talked to us about their longer term plan to move to completely clean palm oil and how they can use their influence in the wider industry to help pressurise the other offenders into cleaning up their act and follow adopt Wilmar's new standards.
We are meeting with them again in March to see how they are getting on.
We were on BBC 3 Counties live last night and on the local BBC news (around the 16 minute mark):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bvdsp5/look-east-west-evening-news-20122018
Thank you again so much for your support - keep sharing!
Asha, Jia and Harvinder.