by Emilia Terzon from www.onfood.com.au

The Truth in Labelling Palm Oil Bill was passed through the Australian Senate last week unopposed in a move that may change the way many food and household items are labeled.

The vegetable oil, which is derived from the palm fruit, has been the subject of scrutiny in recent years with local and international companies, such as Arnotts, Oreo and Burger King, facing environmental and social media campaigns against them.

Most palm oil is grown, harvested and exported from Indonesia and Malaysia in a process that strips and burns rainforest, and has the nasty side-effect of killing many endangered species, such as orangutans.

The current food labeling laws in Australia allow palm oil to be listed as "vegetable oil" on packaging even though it is produced from a fruit.

Cleaning product company Aware Environmental were one of the first Australian companies to remove the ingredient from their full product range, with MD Andrew Chaney commenting that the bill was an important step in the right direction for the country.

“With consumers aware of the contents of what they purchase and the serious environmental impact the use of palm oil has, companies will need to improve their products from the cradle to the grave or risk customers making greener choices,” he said.

The bill was originally proposed by Independent senator Nick Xenophon of South Australia as a means to make consumers aware of whether the products they use contain palm oil.

The Malaysian palm oil lobby has strongly opposed the measure and fears that listing palm oil as an ingredient will result in discrimination against products which contain it.

The country’s Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Y.B. Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said that other competing vegetable oils are not required to be labeled.

"Malaysia is of the view that labeling palm oil purely from the perspective of sustainable production is discriminatory," he said in a statement.

"It is with great regret and disappointment that the Australian Senate has not accorded the due attention contributed by the oil palm industry in Malaysia and the sustainable practices adopted.”

Past movements, such as that against Burger King by environmentalist group Greenpeace and a Facebook phenomenon against Australian Arnotts, had brought the issue coverage in the last few years.

But executives from Australia's leading supermarket chains say there is a long way to go before they can effectively label palm oil in food products.

Representatives from Coles and Woolworths told the Senate inquiry that it is not possible to provide a label for certified sustainable palm oil yet because such an industry does not exist.

The bill now needs to be passed through the House of Representatives before it comes in to action.