05 Oct 2012 DuPont Nutrition & Health offers sustainable emulsifiers

Reacting to the extensive public concern about the environmental impact of palm oil plantations, DuPont Nutrition & Health (DuPont) reports it is leading the way with an extensive portfolio of emulsifiers based on sustainably sourced palm and non-palm oils.

In January 2009, DuPont was the first company to offer RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) certified Mass Balanced (MB) emulsifiers, and last year the first company to offer RSPO certified Segregated (SG) emulsifiers.

By 2015 DuPont has pledged to source 100 percent of its palm-based raw materials as certified palm oil, and is well underway to realising that ambition.

The world’s largest retailers and food companies have committed to using only certified sustainable palm oil by 2015, but the terminology is difficult to understand leading to confusion.

“We want to educate customers about the differing categories of sustainable palm oil, so that they know that the only way to know for sure that a product contains sustainable palm oil is for it to be Segregated (SG),” said Bo Damgaard, global product director, Emulsifiers, DuPont Nutrition & Health.

SG palm oil is kept separate throughout the supply chain and the end product is guaranteed to only include palm oil from RSPO certified plantations – a serious commitment by the producer.

MB palm oil may be mixed with conventional palm oil at each stage of the supply chain, but book-keeping at each stage ensures that the amount of palm oil used to produce a consumer product with a MB claim is matched by the consumption of the same amount of palm oil from RSPO certified plantations. This concept is more difficult to explain to consumers, but it does offer an easier solution for manufacturers.

The DuPont Danisco ingredient range offers a broad range of both SG and MB emulsifiers, and DuPont can offer the necessary experience and strongest capabilities within the area.

“For manufacturers who do not want to postpone conversion to certified sustainable palm oil until 2015, there are no longer any limitations on finding emulsifiers from a sustainable source as DuPont can manufacture virtually all emulsifiers sustainably,” said Philippe Bax, regional emulsifier product director.

Certain markets have chosen to avoid palm-based materials altogether, and the DuPont Danisco ingredient range also offers a large range of non-palm emulsifiers based on non-GMO rapeseed and sunflower oils and non-palm glycerol.