Financial expert warns: Replacing sunflower oil with palm oil in food can have health disadvantages for consumers

Financial expert warns: Replacing sunflower oil with palm oil in food can have health disadvantages for consumers

According to a report by www.tagesspiegel.de, manufacturers of potato chips or fries continued to use cheaper palm oil instead of sunflower oil and sometimes even sold products in old packages with incorrect labeling.

The use of palm oil instead of sunflower oil has health implications, as palm oil contains more saturated fatty acids and can even produce carcinogenic substances during processing. The consumer advice center carried out spot checks and found that 12 of the 13 products examined still contained palm oil, even though the market situation had supposedly eased. The consumer advice center is calling for food monitoring to intervene and advises consumers to pay attention to the list of ingredients and labels.

The impact of this approach on the market and consumers is enormous. On the one hand, due to the lower price of palm oil, manufacturers have an economic incentive to continue using it. However, this means health risks and misleading product labels for consumers.

This approach by manufacturers could undermine consumer trust in the food industry and lead to increased distrust of products that are claimed to be healthy but actually contain less healthy ingredients. It is therefore important that food control intervenes and requires manufacturers to label correctly and use healthier oils.