A company without palm oil

I'm still on my quest to find out who uses palm oil in their products. I emailed Kraft for an answer when they took over Cadbury - surprise suprise, I've heard nothing back from them whatsoever. I will be trying again, and again until I get a response.

In the meantime @RikaNauck sent me some details on a food tasting party she recently held involing a family business from the outskirts of London, called 'My Secret Kitchen'. They prefer to discontinue products rather than compromising on quality if a certain ingredient becomes unavailable. After her party she contacted them for their views on palm oil. She's very kindly shared this with me for this blog. This is what they said:

"The oils we use in our products are either olive oil, rapeseed oil or sunflower oil and we use them for the lovely flavour and other characteristics that they give our finished products. As you probably know, palm oil is a highly saturated fat and therefore solid at usual room temperatures Palm oil is not an ingredient we use in our products both for ethical and culinary reasons!"

I'm so glad to hear a company saying it doesn't use palm oil for its products. Palm oil hasn't been around forever, so goodness knows what these other companies, who say they have to use it for quality and taste, used to use - were their products disgusting? I certainly don't remember chocolate being horrid!

My Secret Kitchen's website also has a page dedicated to their values. On it they say they never use artificial colours or flavours as they find there's no need to. Also when choosing packaging they actively consider the environment and thing about reducing, reusing and recycling. It's certainly novel to see a company capitalising on this idea. I think in a world where there's fierce competition, which there certainly is in the food industry, there is a niche where people want ethical, fairtrade and environmentally sound products, even if they have to pay a little more.

I've not tried any of the products from 'My Secret Kitchen' - but I'm certainly going to investigate their website a little more. It would be great to hear from anyone who has tried their products, or can suggest other similar companies.