Did you know that palm oil is found in many foods? Palm oil is found in numerous foods, such as nut nougat spreads, spreads, snack foods, and infant formula. It’s also used in many cosmetics and household products. There are understandable reasons for its widespread use, but there’s also an important downside.
Why Is Palm Oil Used So Often?
Like coconut oil or cocoa butter, palm oil is one of the few vegetable fats that remain solid at room temperature. This allows it to be used in many recipes without the need for technically hydrogenated fats. This is important because the partial hardening (partial hydrogenation) of vegetable oils can produce trans fatty acids; their content in foods is now legally limited throughout the EU. From a nutritional standpoint, however, palm oil—like other solid fats—contains a high proportion of saturated fatty acids.
Furthermore, refined palm oil is flavorless, oxidation- and heat-stable, and therefore has a long shelf life. This makes it technologically attractive for many manufacturing processes, such as frying, baking, or deep-frying.
Where does palm oil come from?
Palm oil is extracted from the fruits of the oil palm. Originally native to the rainforests of West and Central Africa, the oil palm is now cultivated in tropical regions around the world, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia. It bears fruit year-round and is one of the highest-yielding oil crops in existence: per hectare of cultivated land, it produces significantly more oil than other oilseeds. For the food industry, palm oil is therefore an important raw material, but unfortunately also one that should be viewed critically.
Sustainability as an Industry Issue
The growing global demand for palm oil can have negative consequences for ecosystems, particularly through deforestation and the loss of biodiverse habitats. Many companies that process raw materials have therefore committed to switching to certified palm oil, for example, in accordance with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) standard. The RSPO is an alliance of environmental and nongovernmental organizations, as well as companies and institutions along the palm oil value chain. It establishes criteria for cultivation, taking into account, among other things, the protection of forest areas with high conservation value (HCV).
Palm Oil at Kotányi
We have not used palm oil in any of Kotányi’s in-house recipes for years. The only current exception is the purchased product “Baked Fried Onions,” for which we use exclusively RSPO-certified palm oil. In addition, our soup recipes were completely reformulated to be palm oil-free in fiscal year 2025 and will be gradually introduced to the market starting in 2026.
Conscious Shopping
If you want to take a closer look when shopping, check the ingredient list and choose products made with certified ingredients. This allows you to base your purchasing decisions on transparent criteria.
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