PALM OIL-FREE CERTIFICATION SCHEME LAUNCHED

A new certification programme, the International Palm Oil Free Certification Accreditation Programme (POFCAP), has been developed to enable food makers to demonstrate that their products were manufactured without the use of palm oil, reports the FoodNavigator.com.  The POFCAP trademark has been approved by regulators in Australia and the UK.  A further 14 countries have applications pending for the certification scheme, which was establsihed in response to growing consumer demand for transparency over the use of palm oil in FMCG products. “A company applies to POFCAP, we assess their application and if we can prove their products are 100% palm oil free the products will be certified and the company will then have access to the Palm Oil Free Certification trademark to use on their certified products,” POFCAP’s Bev Luff said.  The team is currently liaising with an unspecified number of “large and small” companies interested in adopting the mark.  

POFCAP is the first scheme that can certify that a product does not contain palm oil, Luff claimed.  The scheme differs from existing schemes such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in that the latter look at whether the palm oil used has been sourced in a sustainable fashion.  POFCAP aims to allow manufacturers who produce products without using palm oil to communicate this to consumers in a clear and trusted way. It is believed that a palm oil-free message is increasingly gaining traction wtih consumers.