General Mills said it will source 100 percent of its palm oil from responsible and sustainable sources by 2015, a commitment it first made in 2010.
The announcement closely follows the scoring of consumer brands for sustainable palm oil made by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). In that scoring, UCS said that the company had fallen short.
UCS now says the policy is an improvement, but General Mills is still “out of touch with the industry definition of High Carbon Stock forests.”
General Mills is a member of and supports the principles of the Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
In addition the company committed to source palm oil only from suppliers whose operations meet the following principles:
• Only legal sources.
• No development on high conservation value landscapes or high carbon stock forests.
• No development on peat lands regardless of depth, and use of best management practices for existing plantations on peat.
• Compliance with the General Mills Supplier Code of Conduct which describes our expectations in food safety, forced labor, child labor, abuse of labor, freedom of association and collective bargaining, discrimination and harassment, wages and benefits, work hours and overtime, health and safety, environment, and anti-corruption.
• Prevention and resolution of social and/or land conflicts consistent with the principle of free prior and informed consent.
• Traceability to the extraction mill and validation of fresh fruit bunches.