You’ve probably heard of it, and you’ve definitely consumed it. Today, we’re talking palm oil and we’re diving right into the greasy truth: Palm oil is bad for the planet, bad for our wildlife and it's not great for our health either. As the most widely consumed vegetable oil in the world, it has found its way into almost every product on your supermarket shelves (except LittleOak, of course).

Grown exclusively in the tropics, oil palm trees produce an incredibly versatile oil with many properties and functions. With its high yield, it’s able to produce huge quantities of oil over small areas of land, almost year-round. And because it's such an efficient, versatile crop, it's used in countless products ranging all the way from instant noodles to lipstick. Oil palm plantations now cover over 27 million hectares worldwide, an area approximately the size of New Zealand. In fact, according to the WWF, palm oil plantations are expanding quicker than almost any other agricultural commodity.

The global production and demand of palm oil is taking a significant toll not only on Mother Earth, but on workers in these regions who face ongoing exploitation. Palm oil continues to be a major driver of deforestation of some of the world’s most beautiful and biodiverse rainforests, further endangering species like the Oragutan, Borneo elephant and Sumatran tiger who are moving closer and closer to extinction. From habitat loss to soil, water and land erosion, palm oil production is causing large scale devastation to our planet and the animals living in it. This just breaks our hearts.

At LittleOak, our dedication to nurturing little ones extends to the world they will grow into. We believe it's our responsibility to care for the planet they will inherit, which is why we will never ever use palm oil in our products. And here’s the kicker - not only is palm oil harming our planet, but it also has some big downfalls when it comes to nourishing your little one.

Palm oil blocks the absorption of calcium, fat and DHA in babies and toddlers, which are all essential building blocks for strong growth and development. Yet despite this, many standard brands on the market use it to imitate the fatty acid profile of breastmilk. At LittleOak, we’ll never cut corners and we’ll never cut costs. Instead of using highly-processed, mass-produced oils like palm or canola, we use cold pressed flaxseed oil, sustainably sourced from New Zealand’s South Island, as well as coconut oil from Malaysia. Importantly, our oils are pressed and we refuse to use any chemicals or solvents to extract the oil from the plant husk. When we say natural goodness, we mean it.

We want our children to grow up in a thriving world, full of nature. We want them to climb trees, to pick flowers, to splash in puddles, to swim in a clean ocean...we want them to grow up with nature all around them. And as a global company, we will continue to do what we can to safeguard the planet for generations to come. We are proud to be the world’s first infant nutrition brand to be certified 100% palm oil free, and we’ll continue to innovate in ways that protect our planet for the children of the future.

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LittleOak has been nourishing children for many years and feeds millions of infants, babies and children across the globe each and every day, in countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. In the US, we're proud to have our FDA compliant Toddler Drink available for families.