"Palm oil" is the easy case. When the ingredient list says it plainly, you can put the pack down. The problem is everything else: palm kernel, palmolein, palm stearin, hydrogenated palm fat, and the same words again in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese. When we ran 35,549 packaged foods through our palm oil check, the 5,772 products that failed did so under 37 different names.
This is the list of those names, ranked by how often they appear. It doubles as a reading guide: if you know these words, you can read a palm oil label in any European supermarket without a phone.
The plain names
These account for the large majority of hits. Counts are the number of products in our data whose ingredient list uses that exact phrase.
- Palm oil: 2,797 products. The plain English phrase, and the most common by a wide margin.
- Palm kernel: 1,276 products. Oil pressed from the seed rather than the fruit flesh. It is harder and more saturated than palm oil, which is why it turns up in coatings and fillings, as in Oreo Chocolate Fudge Covered Cookies, whose label reads "palm and palm kernel oil".
- Palm kernel oil: 784 products. The same ingredient with the word "oil" attached.
- Palm fat: 371 products. Common on UK and Irish labels for the solid fraction.
- Hydrogenated palm: 310 products. Palm oil that has been hardened further. Usually written "hydrogenated palm oil" or "hydrogenated palm fat".
- Fractionated palm: 83 products. Palm oil split into a liquid and a solid part; the label usually says "fractionated palm oil".
- Palm fruit oil: 65 products. A marketing variant of "palm oil", sometimes used to distinguish it from kernel oil.
- Palm oils: 45 products. The plural, which appears when a label lists "palm oils (palm, palm kernel)".
- Palmolein: 35 products, plus 32 more written as palm olein. The liquid fraction, common in frying oils and in products from India and the Middle East; the Indian Cadbury Choco Creme Oreo lists it as "Edible Vegetable Fat, Palmolein".
- Palm shortening: 32 products. A baking term, mostly on North American labels.
- Palm kernel fat: 20 products.
- Palm stearin: 15 products. The hard fraction, used to give margarine and fillings their structure.
- Oil palm: 12 products. Word order reversed, usually in translated labels.
- Red palm oil: 1 product. Unrefined palm oil, sold as a health-food ingredient.
French labels
France contributes a large share of our data, and French labels have their own vocabulary.
- Huile de palme: 169 products. The standard phrase, as on the French 750 g Nutella jar.
- Graisse de palme: 62 products. "Palm fat".
- Matière grasse de palme: 55 products. The formal phrase for palm fat, often seen on biscuit packs.
- Huile de palmiste: 19 products. Palm kernel oil; "palmiste" is the kernel.
- Oléine de palme: 1 product. Palm olein.
- Graisse de palmiste: 1 product. Palm kernel fat.
German labels
- Palmfett: 62 products. Palm fat, the most common German form.
- Palmöl: 36 products. Palm oil.
- Palmkernöl: 7 products. Palm kernel oil.
- Palmkernfett: 3 products. Palm kernel fat.
Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese
- Olio di palma: 18 products (Italian). This is the phrase on the Italian Nutella label in our database.
- Grasso di palma: 8 products (Italian palm fat).
- Aceite de palma: 17 products (Spanish).
- Grasa de palma: 8 products (Spanish palm fat), plus 1 manteca de palma.
- Palmvet: 10 products (Dutch palm fat), plus 4 palmolie and 2 palmpitvet (palm kernel fat).
- Óleo de palma: 3 products (Portuguese), plus 2 óleo de palmiste and 1 gordura de palma.
For completeness, our data also holds one Turkish label with palm yağı.
The 1,273 products that never said "palm"
There is a second group. In 1,273 products the ingredient list did not use any of the words above, yet palm oil was there. These are products where Open Food Facts, the open database our product data comes from, had already classified an ingredient as palm-derived from its own ingredient analysis. Typical cases are labels that write "vegetable fat (palm)" inside a sub-list, or older packs that list a branded fat blend. We show these on the product page with the note "flagged by the Open Food Facts ingredient analysis", so you can see that the call came from the data rather than from a word on the pack.
Names that make us say "not sure"
Two families of words are not palm oil by name but often are in practice, and we treat them as unresolved rather than as a fail.
Palmitates and palmitic acid. Ingredients such as ascorbyl palmitate (a vitamin C ester) or retinyl palmitate (a vitamin A form) contain palmitic acid, which can come from palm oil or from other fats. The label cannot tell you which. Products carrying these show up as "not sure" on eatcheck rather than as a fail.
"Vegetable oil" and "vegetable fat" with no plant named. EU rules ask for the plant to be named, and most labels comply. When a label does not, we do not assume palm and we do not assume its absence. 3,715 products in our database fall into this group.
How to use this list in the shop
Three habits cover almost everything:
- Scan for the letters palm anywhere in the list, including inside brackets. Sub-lists like "filling (sugar, palm fat, cocoa)" are where most hits hide.
- On a French pack, look for palme and palmiste. On a German pack, Palm followed by anything.
- If the fat is only "vegetable", treat the pack as unknown and check the product page instead; someone may have uploaded a newer label.
If you want to see the names in context, the palm oil free hub lists products that passed and products that did not, with the exact ingredient text for each. For a ready-made shopping list, see 50 palm oil free snacks by aisle, and for the spread aisle specifically, our comparison of chocolate spreads.
FAQ
Is palm kernel oil the same as palm oil?
Not quite. Palm oil comes from the fruit flesh, palm kernel oil from the seed. They have different fat profiles and different uses. For anyone avoiding palm on environmental or dietary grounds they count the same, and our check treats both as palm.
Does "sustainable" or "RSPO" change the label reading?
No. Those words describe the supply chain. The ingredient is still palm oil, and it is still counted.
Why do French names appear so often?
Because a large share of the products in our database were uploaded in France, where Open Food Facts began. The French phrases are real and worth knowing, but their frequency reflects the data more than the market.
What about E numbers?
Some emulsifiers, for example E471, can be made from palm oil, but the E number does not say which fat was used. We do not count E numbers as palm oil, because that would be a guess.