Baking soda and baking powder are not the same.

Today's lesson, following on from yesterday's discovery, is that baking soda and baking powder are not the same. Whilst the latter may contain the former, it also contains other ingredients.

At least the baking powder hasn't dissolved my face off or made my hair fall out, but I may need to get some baking soda.

Palm oil-free personal hygiene: alternatives.

As I blogged a few days ago, finding personal hygiene products that are free of palm oil is not always an easy task. Indeed, after spending maybe twenty minutes reading the labels of every single line, I failed to do so at my local supermarket.

In searching for alternatives that are available locally, I stumbled upon a solution that had not occurred to me: DIY. Nothing like a little improvisation to rid oneself of palm oil.

Shampoo: Hardly a significant issue for somebody with hair of my length, but nonetheless an experiment to try. A quick searched revealed that others have also considered going down the shampoo-free path before I did (not really a surprise). Having a lemon tree makes the lemon juice idea appealing, and having baking soda in the cupboard is also convenient.

Soap: More difficult to improvise. Again, a quick search revealed palm oil-free soap recipes, but these require ingredients, time and facilities that I do not have to hand at the moment. Whilst making my own soap will be a longer term aim, it isn't an option now.

Clean and palm oil-free living.

Never one to shy from a challenge, commencing with soap and cleaning products seemed like a sensible choice - not least due to the lack of body wash and laundry detergent in the household.

A trip to my local supermarket of choice (a locally-owned Foodland, rather than corporation owned Woolworths or Coles) was both productive and frustrating:

1. Laundry detergent: surprisingly easy. For a product that is not eaten, labelling on laundry detergents surprised me, as ingredients are clearly listed. Of course, as is usually the case for palm oil-derived ingredients, deciphering names was going to be necessary.

Or so I thought: third item I picked up, Aware Eco Choice, prominently states on the front of the packaging that it does not contain palm oil:

A visit to the product's FAQ makes it even clearer:

Do the powders use any PALM OIL derived ingredients?
No - we are happy to announce, that we now source the primary Surfactant (detergent agent) used in the Aware laundry powders from coconut oil. While Aware Environmental Ltd (Orange Power and Aware’s parent company) and Planet Ark currently support the intentions of the ‘Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil’ (visit www.rspo.org for more info) it is our opinion that the production of palm oil will never be sustainable. Should large international companies, who chair the RSPO, demonstrate the responsible sourcing of palm oil in the future, it will not work to decrease the total demand for the product. Even if a sustainable palm oil product was developed the demand for it would continue to grow and place additional pressure on forests in Indonesia and Malaysia, not to mention new supply countries like Columbia. Coconut Oil is a sound alternative to use as a base for surfactants as it does not represent the same immediate and critical threat to rainforest habitats.

In contrast, other laundry products that claim to be good for the environment use palm oil-derived ingredients and are therefore very bad for the environment. Avoid them at all cost.

2. Body wash/soap: not a single product. Every single item contained palm oil. I am clearly not going to be able to purchase soap at a supermarket. This is going to require some more research.

Where to start with the palm oil purge?

The goal is easy: eliminating palm oil from my life. The path to doing so is not as easy. The challenges that I face:

• Identifying palm oil as an ingredient. As outlined previously, this isn't as easy as it ought to be. However, lists of products that are free of palm oil do exist;
• I currently share a house with two other people, neither of who is passionate about the issue. Whilst I can control what is bought collectively whilst I am shopping, I have no say over what they buy for the three of us;
• Working out where to buy palm oil-free products. Whilst palm oil-free chocolate is easy to find (hint: avoid Nestle as a starting point), finding cleaning products and personal hygiene items is more of a challenge; and
• Deciding what to do when I have no control over what I consume or any way to determine what path I should take.

There are a couple of concessions that I am making on the way to a palm oil-free lifestyle:

• I am not throwing anything away that I purchased previously because it contains palm oil. Whilst the goal may be a palm oil-free lifestyle, unnecessary waste along the way is not acceptable. I shall use up what I have purchased previously and vow to never buy said product again (unless it also makes the transition to a palm oil-free form); and
• Dining out: it is not necessarily possible to always determine beforehand whether a restaurant uses palm oil; in cases in which it is known, such places shall be avoided. When it is not known, highlighting the issue with the staff will be done, and if there is no interest in the matter, then the restaurant will not be frequented again in the future. I accept that this will not always be possible to control and that being completely rigid on this will be impossible (especially when travelling), but for local restaurants that I choose to frequent on a regular basis it is a realistic option.

Putting one's money where one's mouth is is an important aspect of pursuing a palm oil-free existence. Signing a petition to demand to better labelling of products is meaningless if business does not learn that consumers do care about what they consume and will support those businesses that are willing to no longer use palm oil- and boycott those that refuse to change.

Why avoid palm oil?

Palm oil consumption worldwide is expected to double from 2000 to 2030, and triple by 2050. Currently over 70% of palm oil is used in food products, but the demand of biofuels is likely to drive demand further.

But why avoid it? Here's why:

(Forest converting to palm oil, source: bosf_uk)

(Smoke from peat fire, source: bosf_uk)

(Starving female found in palm oil plantation, source: bosf_uk)

Identifying palm oil: not as easy as it sounds.

It may not sound difficult - to remove palm oil completely from one's life. But it is. One has to first identify as what it is listed in the ingredients of a product. More often than not (in Australia, at least), palm oil is not labelled as 'palm oil'. Due to the bad publicity that palm oil receives, it is usually not listed as such. Instead, ingredients such as:

• Vegetable oil;
• Vegetable fat;
• Emulsifier E471;
• Sodium laureth sulphate;
• Sodium lauryl sulphate;
• Sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS or NaDS);
• Palmate;
• Palm oil kernel;
• Palmitate;
• Elaeis guineensis;
• Glyceryl stearate;
• Stearic acid;
• Steareth-2;
• Steareth-20;
• Sodium lauryl sulfoacetate;
• Hydrated palm glycerides;
• Sodium isostearoyl lactylaye;
• Cetyl palmitate and octyl palmitate; and
• Anything with palmitate in the name.

May actually be (and in most cases, almost certainly is) palm oil. Generally speaking, if something isn't palm oil (such as oil), it is listed using its real name ('canola oil', not 'vegetable oil', for instance).

Some organisations estimate that up to 40% of all supermarket items contain palm oil (or its derivatives) and that Australians each consume, on average, 10kg annually.

Everything from chocolate to cooking oil, biscuits to washing powder, and soap to fruit juice may contain palm oil. When palm oil is hidden behind so many names, spotting it is not always an easy exercise. This is the challenge.

Living without palm oil.

It's been a while, but I'm back (as if anybody has noticed).

For the last couple of months I have been endeavouring to rid my life, once and for all, of one of the most evil of ingredients used in so much of what we consume, palm oil. In the past, I've noticed that palm oil has even made its way into fruit juice, all in the name of health, and whilst I have sought to avoid purchasing anything that contains it, to completely avoid it takes a lot of effort - and planning.

Inspired by my involvement in the World Tapir Day activities at the Adelaide Zoo, I have now undertaken to remove palm oil completely from my life.