Daily Mail (13/12/2018) - Are you one of the millions of people who have seen Iceland’s Christmas TV advert about palm oil?

The animated tale, which has been viewed online more than 30 million times, tells the story of a baby orangutan whose forest home is destroyed by farmers who plant the lucrative crop.

The ad was banned from TV for being too political, but still caused a furore over the use of palm oil in food.

And if you checked your own kitchen cupboards after seeing it, you may want to give your bathroom cabinets and make-up bag some attention, too.

For, from lipstick to moisturiser, there is barely a mainstream beauty product on the market that doesn’t contain palm oil or one of its derivatives.

So what exactly is palm oil? It is the most productive oil crop on the planet, yielding between four and ten times more oil per hectare than any other oil crop. Farmers therefore need much less land to get the same amount of oil.

It’s so popular that oil producers have been known to cut down rainforests to plant more oil palm trees, destroying the natural environment of orangutans and other animals. This worrying news means a lot of people are now keen to boycott palm oil. But, even if you scrutinise the labels on your beauty products, it’s not always easy to spot.

While it may be listed as palm oil, or as its scientific name, Elaeis guineensis oil, and some of its derivatives include the word palm (such as retinyl palmitate), any ingredient containing the word cetyl, or the prefix stear-, glyc-, or laur-, could also be derived from it.

Experts also warn that avoiding palm oil entirely isn’t a good idea, since replacing it with other oils may harm the environment even more.

‘Using responsibly sourced palm oil, rather than looking for alternative crops that would need more land (and lead to more deforestation), is the best option,’ says Dr Matthew Struebig, a senior lecturer at the University of Kent’s Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology.

He explains that not all palm oil is bad. ‘Most major producers have signed up to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an organisation that sets standards for palm oil production, and are committed to preserving forestation. There is really no need for forests to be destroyed to meet demand for palm oil.’

While environmental groups broadly support the drive for sustainable palm oil, they worry that the RSPO isn’t as stringent as it should be. Greenpeace says its research suggests that, despite being members of the RSPO, a number of leading brands are still sourcing palm oil from suppliers involved with deforestation.

To help clarify what’s green, we have sought out palm oil-free alternatives for your make-up bag and bathroom. We’ve also found products from smaller companies that insist they know where their palm oil comes from — and can guarantee it’s sustainable and ethically produced.