16/06/2009 (In My Community) - MORE than 100 letters to Woolworths and KFC were signed at a peaceful protest against the use of palm oil in Fremantle last week.

Palm Oil Action Group volunteer Amanda Taaffe said the letter-writing stall, set up near the Fremantle Markets on Sunday, June 7, was designed to raise awareness of the destruction of South East Asian rainforests for palm oil plantations.

Ms Taaffe said palm oil expansion had been linked to issues such as climate change, pushing endangered animals to extinction and the displacement of local populations.

“The response from the public on Sunday at Fremantle was terrific,” she said.

“Most people had heard of palm oil before and the current destruction taking place in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.”

Participants were asked to sign letters calling on Woolworths to confirm a deadline of 2009 for removing palm oil from its Home Brand products.

The letters also asked KFC to stop cooking its food products in palm oil.

A Woolworths spokesman s said the chain was one of few retailers that had publicly stated it was working towards phasing out use of the oil.

There were many long term supply contracts in place and this limited the firm to exclude all palm oil immediately.

The spokesman added reducing palm oil in products was a complex area and it had not set a date for a total phase-out.

Competitive Foods, the company that runs KFC in WA, did not return calls for comment.