For many years Fortnum & Mason has only used RSPO sustainable palm oil, as you will know RSPO palm oil, as required by international law the Principles and Criteria require member companies to respect the rights of indigenous people and other local communities, allowing these communities withhold their consent of for the development of Palm oil plantations on land they own, inhabit and use. As you will be aware there is a section in the RSPO audit to identify labour issues and we are aware of the criticism the RSPO has come under regarding how effective these audits are. However we have decided to move away from using palm oil completely, we believe this is the right thing to do not only for the environment and for the local communities affected by the growth of the palm oil trade. Therefore in addition to the targets, we have set for our suppliers for worker welfare we have also set targets for Palm oil removal in both our Food and Non-Food own-label ranges. Many of our own label products are already palm oil-free and all Own Label food product will be palm oil-free by the end of December 2019 and our Own Label Fashion Beauty and Home range by 2022.
Find out more about our Future Matters program and the progress we are making to build Sustainability & Social Responsibility at Fortnum's