Spanish retailer Eroski has eliminated palm oil from its own brand product range, reinforcing its commitment to healthy eating.
The retailer has reformulated around 308 products from 43 manufacturers after more than four years of efforts. The newly-reformatted SKUs are now available across Eroski's network of stores.
Palm Oil Elimination
The Spanish retailer continues to move towards its objective of providing a healthy and balanced diet at a good price through its own-brand products.
This objective is part of the 10 Commitments to Health and Sustainability that the cooperative incorporated into its management in 2018.
Director of health and sustainability at Eroski, Alejandro Martínez Berriochoa, said, "Palm oil contains a high content of saturated fat, the continued or excessive consumption of which can increase blood cholesterol levels and is also related to cardiovascular diseases.
"The objective of facilitating a healthy diet requires us to look for healthier alternatives that improve the nutritional quality of our products."
For most reformulated products, Eroski has chosen high oleic sunflower oil as a substitute because it provides fluffiness and texture very similar to palm oil and reduces the amount of saturated fat by up to 80% or 55% in the case of some references of biscuits and cereals.
'Great Challenge'
"The great challenge has been to achieve products that are just as juicy, fluffy and tender, but healthier," added Berriochoa. "Throughout all this time we have made countless tests with various fats and ingredients in different proportions through tests and rigorous tastings. Intense work, carried out side by side by Eroski technicians and the R&D, quality and production teams of our suppliers."
Berriochoa thanked suppliers for their commitment towards the project. "Palm oil stands out for its low cost, and therefore the substitution by other alternative fats has been possible thanks to the optimisation of processes and the promotion of the joint purchase of raw materials to reduce the cost," he noted.
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine. Article by Conor Farrelly. For more Private Label news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
