Palm Oil

We are an approved member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

The RSPO was set up to fulfil the increasing demand for palm oil, whilst supporting affordable food prices, poverty reduction, safeguarding of communities and workers, and protecting tropical ecosystems.

Why is palm oil a problem?

The destructive, and sometimes illegal, farming of palm oil is a global environmental issue. The huge areas of forests cleared to make way for palm oil plantations has devastated tropical ecosystems, caused air pollution, and significantly contributed to climate change.

At Higgidy, this is an issue that we’re concerned about, and you can find out a little more about the steps we’re taking as a business to address it below.

Is the palm oil you use sustainable?

Using ethically sourced materials and ingredients is hugely important to us at Higgidy. We’re always busy reviewing our processes and suppliers to ensure we maintain the best possible approaches for us as a business and for you, our community.

So, we procure 100% of our palm oil through RSPO’s ‘Segregation’ Model. This assures our palm oil only comes from RSPO certified sources and isn’t mixed with uncertified oil in the supply chain.

While this does not solve the issues associated with unsustainable palm oil, it contributes to reducing them.

You can find out more about the different supply chains and the sourcing process, here: www.rspo.org/certification/supply-chains

Why not use an alternative?

We’re confident that using RSPO certified palm oil is the best route for Higgidy at the moment.

Removing palm oil from products can come with its own set of problems; more deforestation is required to produce lower yielding alternatives, like soy or sunflower oil, and millions of Indonesian’s livelihoods depend on palm oil cultivation.

Moreover, NGOs, including Greenpeace, stress that it’s deforestation from the unsustainable cultivation of palm oil that generates the issue, not the palm oil itself.

So, similarly, we want to understand the full picture – the production processes, and implications of the alternative options available, to help us make informed decisions on which oils we bake with. And, having explored these and the issues described above, we feel RSPO certified palm oil is currently the most ethical choice.

However, we are committed to finding a sustainable alternative to palm oil and are constantly exploring how we can replace it without causing more harm than good.

You can read about all the companies using RSPO certified palm oil, here: https://www.rspo.org/certification/supply-chain-certificate-holders

Want to find out more?

If you’d like to find out more about palm oil, the alternatives available and how you can play your part, there are lots of handy articles and sources of information across the web, including;

https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/8-things-know-about-palm-oil/