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r/AskUK · u/BarbiePeoniesAug 1, 2026, 5:41 PM

Why does everything have palm oil in it?

Recently I’ve noticed a lot of food products containing palm oil and I really don’t remember it being like this when I was younger. Just yesterday I got those M&S cookies in the cellophane bag that literally everyone raves about and they contain palm oil. They weren’t that cheap either so the use of palm oil makes no sense. Obviously it’s because all these greedy companies want to use the cheapest ingredients possible but it’s still annoying.

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Comments

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u/Deep_Banana_65211Aug 1, 2026, 5:43 PM
Fat makes things taste good, especially baked things. Usually that comes from butter, but butter is expensive. Palm oil isn't.
- u/Mindless-Mulberry8071Aug 1, 2026, 5:51 PM
  Palm oil makes things taste disgusting 😅
- u/HowUtterlyGhastly1Aug 1, 2026, 5:53 PM
  Yeah, but butter tastes good, and palm oil doesn't!
u/primozdunbar1Aug 1, 2026, 5:43 PM
I feel like it's the companies who complain about the cost of raw ingredients pushing prices up, people get used to it, then replace the decent ingredients with shitter ones.
u/Hotten-Tasty-901Aug 1, 2026, 5:44 PM
Because it's cheap shite. Avoid it like the plague. It's a massive driver of deforestation which further endangers many species that are already on the brink.
- u/Saltysockies1Aug 1, 2026, 5:47 PM
  Yes, but if they swapped to another oil it'll destroy even more.
  - u/Hotten-Tasty-901Aug 1, 2026, 5:50 PM1 reply
- u/scarygirth1Aug 1, 2026, 5:51 PM
  Palm oil is the most efficient plant oil to produce in both land and water use and it's not even close. It largely doesn't rely on artificial irrigation either. To replace that oil with an alternative, like rapeseed or sunflower, would require at least 5x the land. To replace it with dairy would require exponentially more land and water factoring in the growing space for animal feed as well as the husbandry itself.
  - u/Hotten-Tasty-901Aug 1, 2026, 5:52 PM1 reply
  - u/bobbyroberts721Aug 1, 2026, 5:55 PM1 reply
- u/pjkm1239871Aug 1, 2026, 5:55 PM
  yeah I prefer crude oil
u/yolo_snail1Aug 1, 2026, 5:44 PM
Why does everyone eat meat when it's bad for the environment?
- u/Mindless-Mulberry8071Aug 1, 2026, 5:51 PM
  Because we need iron and protein.
  - u/Ornery_Movie_79451Aug 1, 2026, 5:52 PM1 reply
- u/Ornery_Movie_79451Aug 1, 2026, 5:52 PM
  I don't
u/Serberou51Aug 1, 2026, 5:44 PM
Americans
u/madcheco1Aug 1, 2026, 5:44 PM
Because it's cheap.
u/GenericDefaultGuy1Aug 1, 2026, 5:44 PM
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with palm oil– it’s natural and regenerative. Sure a few Orangutans get flattened in the process but they’re basically just the pigeons of Borneo. A pest.
- u/whoops531Aug 1, 2026, 5:49 PM
  Think you forgot the "/s"
- u/bobbyroberts721Aug 1, 2026, 5:50 PM
  That may be true of palm oil, what these corporations are using in our food isn’t palm oil, it’s a highly refined, bleached and deodorised oil devoid of nutrients and the high temperatures used in the processing increase certain fatty acids that are not good for us.
u/AboutLastFight1Aug 1, 2026, 5:45 PM
Because America fucking sucks. There, I said it.
u/ConchBonnet1Aug 1, 2026, 5:46 PM
You’ve just answered yourself, was this post necessary?
u/mattcannon21Aug 1, 2026, 5:46 PM
It's cheap and bulls our the expensive ingredients (cocoa butter and dairy fats)
u/FelisCantabrigiensis1Aug 1, 2026, 5:48 PM
Because it's one of the few fats that's white, not lard, and solid at room temperature but melts when warmed slightly. Therefore anything that doesn't want to taste of butter (or have yellow/brown colour in it from butter) uses it, because "lard bad" in the consumer mind.
u/Odd-Leopard43881Aug 1, 2026, 5:48 PM
Does anyone remember that viral iceland advert where they said they would stop using palm oil and carried in using it
- u/Jonny74211Aug 1, 2026, 5:50 PM
  Iceland also proposed sentencing criminals to work at Iceland.
  - u/HowUtterlyGhastly1Aug 1, 2026, 5:52 PM
u/FletchLives991Aug 1, 2026, 5:48 PM
Because it's stable at room temperature and doesn't go off for a long time. This is the big reason.
- u/morebob121Aug 1, 2026, 5:52 PM
  And it being cheap shite.
u/Ornery_Movie_79451Aug 1, 2026, 5:49 PM
I personally try and avoid it which can be tough sometimes
u/Natural-Round87621Aug 1, 2026, 5:49 PM
Don't get the hate over palm oil. It is the most land-efficient vegetable oil crop
- u/Leviambo81Aug 1, 2026, 5:55 PM
  Not the best for the diet although when you look at majority of the snacks that have palm oil in crisp etc they’re not exactly meant to be healthy
- u/GritstoneGhost1Aug 1, 2026, 5:56 PM
  Linked to massive deforestation isn’t it?
u/Illustrious_Store1151Aug 1, 2026, 5:50 PM
A fat thats cheap Same thing with corn syrup in the US
u/Mindless-Mulberry8071Aug 1, 2026, 5:50 PM
It's ruined 97% of chocolate products for me. I thought I'd never quit chocolate but the industry made me.
u/GetNooted1Aug 1, 2026, 5:51 PM
It’s the least harmful oil for the planet. Yes there is a lot of deforestation for it, but all the alternatives would be way worse. https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/8-things-know-about-palm-oil
u/MelodicPreparation931Aug 1, 2026, 5:51 PM
I thought the palm oil hate train on social media ended months ago.
u/JibberJim1Aug 1, 2026, 5:51 PM
When you were younger solid vegetable fats were partially hydrogenated vegetable oils - "trans fats" - they're not used any more, 'cos they're probably not healthy. Therefore the food companies needed to move to other saturated fats that that are an easy replacement in the recipe. Palm oil is cheap, relatively tasteless and therefore the commonest substitute.
u/ldn-ldn1Aug 1, 2026, 5:54 PM
Because it's cheap and you're buying it even at an extra price.
u/marktuk1Aug 1, 2026, 5:55 PM
They use it to "pad" products out so they can use fewer other ingredients. I recently found the penaut butter we have has got palm oil in it. There is zero need for palm oil to make peanut butter, you just blend peanuts and you get peanut butter. They're adding the palm out to pad it out, so they can get away with less peanut.
u/Extra-Sound-17141Aug 1, 2026, 5:56 PM
M and s cookies were lovely before the palm oil. They are rubbish now