Iceland removes its name from some products after failing to meet own palm oil deadline
British supermarket Iceland removed its name from some of its own-brand products last year, after it realised it couldn't meet its campaign target of selling no products containing palm oil under its branding.
The retailer said it would remove all palm oil from 100 per cent of its own products by the end of 2018, due to the effects of producing the ingredient on rainforests.
When it realised it could not meet the deadline, Iceland chose to drop its name from 17 products instead of the ingredient.
The news comes after reports by the BBC yesterday revealed that Iceland's website was still selling at least 28 products containing palm oil under its own branding. Iceland told the broadcaster that this was due to a "website issue".
https://twitter.com/davidchalliday/status/1088465823684091904
The BBC said Iceland was telling users on its social media platforms that there were no own-brand products containing palm oil on its shop floors before the end of 2018, despite still selling some branded products into the new year.
Iceland said some of its stock was still being phased out of stores, and that there would be no products with palm oil available for purchase "within the next few weeks".
Read more: Iceland's palm oil Christmas ad banned for being 'too political'
Responding to today's report, Iceland said it "was not possible to remove palm oil at a manufacturing level in these products by 31 December 2018".
Saying that it did not want to "mislead consumers", it instead opted for the removal of its name on some products. While 17 products have been taken out of its own branding line temporarily, a further 15 products were "impossible to reformulate" and so would not be returning under the Iceland name.
An Iceland spokesperson said the campaign to remove palm oil has cost the firm "millions of pounds of company money", and that its initial promise of selling no products containing the ingredient by the end of the year was achieved.