Edible oils and fats supplier AAK UK is warning manufacturers not to make misleading claims when buying sustainable palm oil products.

It said some businesses had started to make claims about their use of sustainable palm oil without necessarily being members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) or having RSPO audits. Marketing controller Judith Murdoch said: "They are being careful to omit the word RSPO from their claims," adding that this was undermining what was trying to be achieved: "Without becoming a member of the RSPO, without being audited and open, how can we prove that oil has been sustainably produced?"

MD Martin Craven added: "All parties of the supply chain including the manufacturer must now be RSPO members and go through the full audit and certification process in order to use sustainable palm oil and make claims about it. Otherwise, the palm oil they are buying is essentially no longer classed as RSPO-certified sustainable."

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