In early September, we announced that Australia’s favourite chocolate maker, Darrell Lea, has decided to go 100% palm oil-free. But why the big move? Well, according to marketing director Tim Stanford, the leading catalyst came from their consumers.

“As a business, we wanted to do the right thing,” Tim said. “In recent years, our consumers have told us that they don’t want palm oil in our products. We listened and we took action finding a great alternative in sunflower oil.”

“It doesn’t affect the taste, look or feel of our products.”

This means that Darrell Lea is Australia’s first major supermarket brand to achieve this significant milestone. It’s great news for the 68 percent of their customers who said they would change their buying habits to palm oil-free alternatives. As well as the 70 percent who know that palm oil is proving a problem for the environment.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, palm oil’s excessive use in many edible products worldwide is contributing to the climate crisis.

“Palm oil has been, and continues to be, a major driver of deforestation of some of the world’s most biodiverse forests, destroying the habitat of already endangered species like the orangutan, pygmy elephant and Sumatran rhino,” World Wide Fund said. “This forest loss, coupled with conversion of carbon-rich peat soils, are throwing out millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and contributing to climate change.”

Darrell Lea thinks Australians deserve better. They deserve to know what is in the products they are consuming.

“There is no doubt that palm oil production causes major devastation to rainforests and endangered animals, such as the orangutan,” Tim Stanford said.

“We call on all businesses, not only in the confectionery industry but across the board, to look into their supply chain and make better decisions about the ingredients they use.”