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Comment by stronglikedan | Hacker News Reader

> I switched off products that use palm oil a while back

Do you have any reliable resources on how to do this? I would like to, but I'm always dubious of the resources I find, since they seem to be biased. Not that I don't trust their information, but I just have a hard time verifying it.

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I just go by the labels. If the labels aren't reliable, then I'd have problems. I tend to think they are reliable because of people with allergies, but I suppose it depends on where you live and how much you trust your vendors.

I mean there is a chance I've got a product with wrong labeling. I just accept I have to trust other people or the labels to figure out if information is incorrect.

You are certainly correct in that we have to trust the regulators and vendors. I just don't recall seeing a label specifically mentioning palm oil, and I'm dubious about labeling requirements to begin with. Others mention that vendors may get away with including it as "vegetable oil" on a label, and I wouldn't be surprised.

You might also be interested in Buycott.

for food, read the ingredients, if it says palm oil or vegetable oil don't buy it

>vegetable oil

but what if it's just regular sunflower oil or something of the sort?

vegetable oil is generally specified by which type, since some oils (soy, for me) are allergens and could really mess someone up if they randomly eat the wrong kind. it would say something like "vegetable oil (one or more of the following: canola, soy, sunflower oil)"

Always assume it’s the lowest common denominator. Sunflower oil is more expensive so it won’t be that, if it was they would say.

I'm relatively certain that I (in the U.S.) have never purchased any oil labeled as "vegetable" oil that gave any indication it may contain palm oil.

Is there oil labeled as "vegetable oil" that contains palm oil? Or is there another reason you think it should be avoided?

He's not really talking about bottles of vegetable oil used in cooking. He's talking about products that use sneaky labeling to either hide the palm oil or make formulation flexible- e.g. if the nutrition label lists "vegetable oil", they can make the product using whatever vegetable oil is convenient that day.

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