Eating Without Palm Oil | List of Foods

My son gets sick from palm oil. Many times, people ask us what he can have. I created this eating without palm oil list specific to my son. These are the foods he likes and eats safely. This is a list of foods he can safely have.

We created this site to help others who might have a palm oil intolerance, palm oil sensitivity, or palm oil allergy. As we learned more about palm oil, we learned about the environmental concerns as well. Learn about the problems with palm oil regarding deforestation.

Eating without palm oil list of foods

Since 2017, we have been navigating palm oil. At that time, our family ate a lot of processed foods. While I bought fruits and vegetables and cooked at home, a lot of our diet contained packaged snacks. My son’s diet looks a lot different in 2024 than it did in 2017.

This is to say, these changes didn’t happen overnight. It was first a process of removing everything that contained palm oil. Back then, I was looking for replacements he could still have. An example of what I mean is: “Okay, he can’t have Peanut M&M’s because they have palm oil but he can have Milk Chocolate (plain) M&M’s because they don’t.”

Over the years, I have become less reliant on processed foods and buy more whole, real foods. 

What my child eats with palm oil intolerance

My son reacts to even trace amounts of palm oil as well as palm oil derivatives so we believe these items are okay if you are avoiding palm oil. But note they are not guaranteed. 

Something positive that’s come of this is we all eat healthier, cleaner foods. I cook and bake from scratch regularly. We have less processed foods and eat out less.

Overall, we eat more real foods and buy products with less “ingredients.”

While we have comprehensive lists of palm oil free products, this list is specific to my son will actually eat. In general, we keep things simple.

When buying packaged foods, we stick to original flavors which tend to have less palm oil than complicated flavors. We also choose products with the least amount of ingredients as possible. 

Whenever possible, we choose the less processed option. Example: Buying nuts in their shell instead of already shelled.

Palm oil hides under hundreds of names. Most palm oil ingredients don’t include “palm” in the name. It’s in thousands of products. It’s difficult finding products without it.

Palm oil hides in “Natural Flavors” making it even more stressful. See more below. Learn about his palm oil allergy/intolerance.

Raw Vegetables

Examples of vegetables he eats regularly: Snap peas, snow peas, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, spinach, lettuce, celery.

Our son will eat most any vegetable that you can eat raw. He has several each day, plain, without dressing. We buy organic when possible, especially the dirty dozen like celery. 

I have made homemade dressings (organic olive oil, balsamic, garlic, etc.) but he won’t try them. 

Fresh Fruits 

Examples of fruits he eats: Apple, banana, mandarin, clementine, orange, pear, peach, nectarine, grapes, pomegranate, plum, apricot, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, cherries, pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, figs, dates, red pepper, orange pepper, yellow pepper.

He eats a lot of fruits every day. He can have all fruits, including coconut. As far as we know, palm oil ingredients are the only things that affect him. I used to be stressed out about all the sugar that fruit contains. Then I remembered how he used to eat ice cream, etc. frequently. I’d rather him eat fruit.

We buy frozen organic berries and frozen organic berries with spinach and kale to keep on hand for smoothies. They are more economical than buying organic berries fresh.

Again, we buy organic when possible and keep in mind the Clean 15 and dirty dozen.

Take extra care to wash citrus. We learned sometimes companies use palm oil to make them shinier. We typically buy these in bags when they are less likely to be “shined.” Sometimes I don’t buy green apples because I can’t remove the wax or whatever it is they coat them in. I emailed a pear distributor to ask what they used to coat the pears; it wasn’t palm oil.

Dried Fruit

We shop at Costco. I buy Hadley Organic Pitted Deglet Moor Dates (2.5 lb containers). My son snacks on these often. I enjoy baking with dates a lot, including making these homemade date bars. They contain hemp seeds, chia seeds, nuts, and raisins or dried cranberries. They are so easy to make.

Costco sells bags of Nutty & Fruity Dried Jackfruit which my son takes to school often.

Grains

He doesn’t love grains but I sometimes make them as a filler foods.

I use the Instapot to make rice and quinoa. I’ll cook chicken or beef and scallions, onions, peppers, etc. for a stir fry. He will sometimes eat oatmeal with cinnamon, chopped apples, and walnuts.

Beef / Meat

My son will eat any meat. In restaurants we order plain with just salt, no cream sauces. At home, depending on the meat, we cook it with salt, real onions, and chopped garlic cloves. 

I cook ground beef with garlic, onions, scallions, leeks, salt and pepper, or with bacon and onions. Sometimes I add one of these:

• Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning (from Walmart, grocery stores)
• McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning (from Costco, grocery stores)
• Weber Chicago Steak Seasoning
• Organic cumin and/or garlic powder; McCormick Cumin

I bought finishing salts so now I don’t use as much salt when I’m cooking meat. My family and I love these sustainable salts from SALTVERK. They are sourced from Iceland. I happened upon them at my Sprouts store on their sale shelf. I wish I bought more! I bought one each of: Flaky Sea Salt; Birch Smoked Salt; Arctic Thyme Salt

Most often, we buy raw meat. When my budget allows, I pick up some organic ground beef at Costco. I also buy their grass fed frozen Kirkland Signature hamburger patties.

I’m trying to get him to drink bone broth (from organic bones) as well. At the very least, when I reheat meat on the stovetop, I sometimes add a frozen bone broth cube.

Chicken

I buy chicken and cook it in the oven. Then I finish it off on the stovetop with avocado oil or olive oil, peppers, onions, scallions, leeks, and garlic. Sometimes, I’ll make it southwest with fresh lime and spices.

Recently, I added chopped zucchini and organic thyme leaves, and ate that which I was happy about.

In restaurants, he will order half a chicken or chicken wings. He can usually have barbeque sauce.

My son also eats turkey but I don’t buy it that often.

Chicken Tenders not Chicken Nuggets

Many times in sit-down restaurants, chicken tenders are fine. You have to ask for them to read the ingredients on the package. Clarify, you want them to read the package. If I know in advance we are going to a restaurant, I will call during a less busy time. Otherwise, I will ask when we get there (trying not to make it a big deal).

In doing lots of research, I’ve come to realize that chicken tenders tend to be fine for him but chicken nuggets are often not. In restaurants, he will order chicken tenders or wings, never chicken nuggets.

Fast food restaurants vary. The great news is most larger chains list their ingredients on their websites, so you can see before you go. Again, try for the tenders instead of the nuggets.

Processed Meats

As I’ve cleaned up our diet, my son has been eating less processed foods. He hasn’t eaten some of these foods below in years. However, I want to keep them on this list to give you palm oil free options. I know it’s really hard when you are eliminating palm oil from your grocery cart.

• Kirkland Signature Bacon
  • from Costco; regular bacon in blue bag
  • Bacon from other brands has been fine for him.
• Banquet Brown ‘N Serve Original Sausage Links; also had Maple
• Hormel Natural Choice:
  • Honey Deli Ham
  • Smoked Deli Ham
• Crazy Cuisine Mandarin Orange Chicken (without the sauce)
  • from Costco
• Foster Farms: (read ingredients as they may have changed)
  • Crispy Strips (yellow and green bag)
  • Chicken Tenders (yellow and green bag)

Seafood

He’s been able to have any seafood. In restaurants, he orders it without any sauces. At home, we use avocado oil and olive oil for fish. For shrimp, we use real, grass fed butter, real lemon or lime, fresh garlic, and fresh herbs.

I buy the wild-caught salmon from Costco regularly.

Spices

For seasonings, we keep it simple. We use real (not from containers) limes and lemons, garlic cloves, and onions. We use basic table salt as well.  Recently, we’ve added Saltverk salts.

He can also have Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning and McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning but we only use these on ground beef and sometimes on a roast.

I use fresh or dried herbs. I use real cinnamon and ground nutmeg in baking.

Oils

Important: We avoid oil blends completely. We only buy 100% of whatever the oil is.

Mostly, we cook with avocado oil and organic olive oil. For baking we use avocado oil, and sometimes canola oil or soybean oil.

See these tips about finding palm oil free products. 

Snacks for lunches, on-the-go, and at home

• Chomps: Original Beef; Venison
• O Organics Beef Jerky
• Potato Chips
  • Lay’s Regular Potato Chips; Cape Cod Potato Chips
  • ORGANIC POTATO CHIPS CONTAIN RED PALM OIL
• Pretzels without palm oil
  • Rold Gold Pretzels – Original 
  • Synder’s Pretzel Rods SNYDER’S OF HANOVER NOW CONTAINS PALM OIL.
  • Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps Original (These are the flat pretzels in a blue bag.)
• Pepperidge Farms Goldfish Cheddar (We get the big box from Costco.)
• Seaweed Snacks – Sea Salt 
  • Sprouts Seaweed Snacks
  • Kirkland brand from Costco
  • Others that only contain seaweed, sunflower oil, and salt
• Popcorn without palm oil
  • Popcornopolis Popcorn (big bag from Costco)
  • He can have any that lists popcorn, a safe oil, and salt.
  • Air-popped popcorn at home
• Kettle corn
  • Angie’s Boom Chicka Pop Kettle Corn (big bag at Costco)
• Pirate’s Booty (not any store versions; the regular Pirate’s Booty)
• Rice rollers from Costco
• Quaker Oats Caramel Rice Cakes
  • THEY NOW CONTAIN “UNDISCLOSED NATURAL FLAVORS AND TOCOPHEROLS. My guess is they now contain palm oil.
• GoGo Squeez Fruit & Veggies On the Go: Zippin’ Zingin’ Pear and Boulder Berry

Snacks without palm oil

Snack bars

• Thunderbird Real Food Bars: Cashew Fig Carrot; Pecan Goji Pistachio
• Go Raw! Organic Sprouted Bar: Pumpkin Seed; Spirulina Sesame
• RX Bars: Peanut Butter Chocolate; Chocolate Sea Salt; Blueberry
• Larabar Kid Chocolate Brownie
• Van’s Cranberry & Almond Gluten-free Bar
• Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars: Oats ‘N Dark Chocolate; Oats ‘N Honey – Learn about Nature Valley Granola Bars and why to choose the crunchy bars over their chewy bars.
• Enjoy Life Foods Grain & Seed Bars (All four flavors are certified Palm Oil Free.) Sadly, they’ve discontinued these.

There are a lot of hidden palm oil ingredients in bars. It’s in the Natural Flavors, Tocopherols, and Glycerin.

Yogurt 

• Dannon Activa Yogurt: Strawberry, Blueberry, Black Cherry, Mixed Berry
• Chobani Greek Yogurt BLENDED with Blueberry or Strawberry or Vanilla
• Chobani with Fruit on the Bottom: Black Cherry, Blueberry, Strawberry, Peach (I buy the big box from Costco.) 

French Toast, Waffles, Pancakes

I was tired of reading labels. Several products we used to buy starting containing palm oil or were discontinued. So now, I make waffles and pancakes from scratch. I use Dave’s Killer Bread for French toast. To save money, I buy it at Costco instead of the grocery store.

• Dave’s Killer Bread Organic 21 Whole Grains and Seed Bread

Nuts

He’s been able to have tree nuts as well as peanuts. He can have them if they just contain salt. We have them as snacks, and I also make granola and this vegan bars recipe with nuts.

I buy these big bags of nuts from Costco regularly. They are all Kirkland Signature:

• Organic Brazil nuts
• Pecans
• Dry Roasted Almonds
• Walnuts
• Cashews
• Pistachios In-Shell
• Macadamia nuts (less frequently because they are more expensive per ounce)

Smoothies

We buy frozen organic berries or use whatever we have fresh. I also toss in a partial banana and some greens. Sometimes I sneak in avocado or baked sweet potato.

• O Organics Frozen Berries
• Rader Farms Fresh Start Smoothie Blend with (all) Organic Blueberry, Strawberry, Raspberry, Kale, Spinach (from Costco) 

As I stated above, buying organic berries is a lot less expensive than frozen. It’s also easy to keep them on hand; they won’t go bad/become rotten and wasted.

Drinks

Updated: He only drinks water or smoothies we make at home.

He doesn’t have soda anymore. However for years, if he was out and having a soda, he was fine when he would stick with name brand products (Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, 7-Up, Sprechers, A&W, etc.) He avoided anything with grape, cherry, orange, etc. 

He once got very (!!!!) sick from drinking either a Gatorade or PowerAde. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there and didn’t get to see exactly what he drank. At the time, there was a type of Glycerol Esters, Glycerine, or Glycerin in some of the flavors. He hasn’t had one since. 

Cereals

• Homemade oatmeal
• Homemade granola
• Kellogg’s Raisin Bran
  • Make sure it’s Kellogg’s; Post Raisin Bran contains Vitamin A Palmitate.
• Purely Elizabeth Blueberry Hemp Granola
• Seven Sundays Muesli: We buy the Early Riser Mix Muesli (Order from the Seven Sundays website or from Amazon.)

See our post for more cereals without palm oil. I use this granola recipe which is delicious and can be changed to whatever nuts, seeds, and dried fruits you have. 

Cookies

I haven’t bought these in a long time but he was able to have them. 

• Pepperidge Farm:
  • Thin & Crispy: Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate
  • Chessmen
• Market Pantry Animal Crackers (at Target)

For more info about palm oil in cookies, see our post cookies without palm oil.

Ice Cream

• Ben & Jerry’s pints: All flavors are palm oil free! This is incredible. 
  • It’s the only time my son can walk in and pick whatever he wants! Thank you, Ben & Jerry’s!
• Tillamook:
  • Mint Chocolate Chip
  • Vanilla Bean
  • Chocolate Chip
  • Cookie Dough (It’s amazing they make this without palm oil.)
• Alden’s Organic:
  • Chocolate
  • Cookies & Cream
• Breyers:
  • Natural Vanilla (Their other three vanillas contain mono- & diglycerides.)
  • Chocolate
  • Mint Chocolate Chip
  • Neopolitan

Alden’s Organic and Tillamook have more flavors without palm oil but these are the ones we buy. Check out ice cream without palm oil.

Safe candy he can have

• YumEarth Candy Canes
• Wholesome Organic Candy Canes
• barkTHINS Snacking Chocolate: Dark Chocolate Almond with Sea Salt (They now sell big bags of this at Costco.)
• Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: original; regular packaging; no holiday versions
• Hershey’s bars: Milk Chocolate, Almond, Special Dark
• Hershey’s Kisses: Milk Chocolate, Almond
• M&M’s Milk Chocolate, Almond
• Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Mini Chips (We also use when we make waffles.)
• Sour Patch Kids
• Jolly Rancher Hard Candies

He can have any “real” chocolate as well. We choose the ones with as few ingredients as possible. As an example, the chocolate chips we buy only contain Cocoa Butter, Unsweetened Chocolate, and Cane Sugar. 

We have lots of info about this in our palm oil free candy without palm oil post. In addition, we have another post about holiday candy without palm oil. 

S’mores without palm oil

• Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallows
  • Other marshmallows with the same ingredients as above are likley fine.
• Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bar: any size
• Honey Maid Grahams (Many other brands contain palm oil and palm oil derivatives such as DATEM.)

Desserts

I make all desserts because the ones in bakeries and grocery stores contain palm oil. Learn more: Why I don’t buy premade desserts

We make brownies, cookies, cupcakes, this easy and amazing chocolate cake recipe, and biscotti. 

In addition, we make our own frosting easily with confectioners sugar, real butter, whole milk, and pure vanilla. See frosting recipe. I make whipped cream, chocolate mousse and even homemade Oreos Cakesters.

The only mixes we use are:

• Pillsbury Chocolate Fudge Brownie Mix
• Pillsbury Milk Chocolate Brownie Mix

I make these brownies and freeze them for when he goes to a birthday party, etc.

Baking ingredients we use

• Organic whole milk without Vitamin A Palmitate
  • We use Horizon Organic Whole Milk or O Organics Whole Milk
• Red-Star Yeast in the 3-pack is the only one I found without palm oil derivatives
• Real butter or grass-fed butter
• Kirkland Organic Eggs from Costco
• Simply Organic Pure Vanilla Extract
  • Any “pure” extract is likely fine; I’ve used many brands
• Pure cane sugar
  • I use C&H Pure Cane Sugar. Any sugar with just “sugar” listed is likely fine. I am going to start buying organic sugar.
• King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
  • Probably most any flour would be okay. I now buy organic flour when I’m at Target.
• Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Baking Flour (for gluten free baking)
• Confectioners sugar / powdered sugar
  • I use O Organics Powdered Sugar or C&H Confectioners Sugar.
• Baking powder
  •  Clabber Girl Double Acting Baking Powder
• Pure baking soda
  • I used Arm & Hammer but now am using Bob’s Red Mill baking soda which doesn’t contain aluminum.
• Chocolate chips: Enjoy Life Mini Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips; Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Premium Baking Chips (I AVOID ALL NESTLE Chocolate Chips.)
• Table salt
• Red Ape Cinnamon (It’s certified Palm Oil Free.)
• 100% pure maple syrup
• Local honey

We are used to making substitutions.

He can’t have Rice Krispie treats because the cereal contains Vitamin A Palmitate; however, we can use the marshmallows and real butter to coat air-popped popcorn for a treat just as delicious. 

See our post about desserts without palm oil.

Meals without palm oil

So what does this look like on a day-to-day basis? We are lucky our son eats fruits, vegetables, and meats. These make up most of his diet.

Breakfast

• Homemade waffles:
  • I make batches in my waffle maker and freeze them. I warm them in the toaster.
• Homemade French toast
  • Dave’s Killer Bread in green or yellow bag with eggs, organic whole milk, cinnamon, butter.
• Pancakes
• Organic eggs scrambled in real butter (grass fed when possible)
• Leftover meat
• Banquet Brown ‘N Serve Original Sausage Links
• Fruit
• Yogurt
• Purely Elizabeth Blueberry Hemp Ancient Grain Granola
• Homemade oatmeal with berries and nuts or homemade granola

I only buy 100% pure maple syrup. See my post breakfast without palm oil to see how common palm oil is at this meal.

Lunch at school without palm oil

He brings the following everyday:

• Activa Yogurt
• Combination of fruits and vegetables
• A few of the above snacks and bars
• He doesn’t really bring a great “solid” lunch food

Dinner without palm oil

The majority of our dinners consist of:

• Meat
• Fruit
• Raw vegetables

My son will eat all of these without issue. If we are out, we ask for them to cook the meat with salt. Again, we cook meats with garlic cloves, chopped onion, salt. Sometimes we use extra virgin pure olive oil, lime, lemon, peppers, etc. for additional flavoring. 

We cook with as simple ingredients as possible. Because onion and garlic powders can contain palm oil, we only use real, fresh onions, and garlic.

In addition, we buy real lemons and limes. We don’t buy the squeeze lime juices, etc. These contain additives — Citric Acid — that can contain palm oil. 

He eats a wide variety of fruits and raw vegetables. 

Eating at fast food restaurants without palm oil

We are grateful when restaurants publish their ingredients online so we can check in advance. Many restaurants list which products contain the major allergens but don’t spell out the ingredients. Palm oil isn’t recognized as an allergen so that doesn’t help us.

Other restaurant chains spell out the Nutritional Profile with the calorie count and fat content but not the actual ingredients. It’s frustrating.

Important: Many restaurant French fries contain palm oil.

If they make the French fries fresh on-site — like In-N-Out Burger and Five Guys — they most likely won’t contain palm oil. The palm oil in fries is when they come frozen to the store, not how the store cooks them on-site.

We are loyal to In-N-Out and Five Guys restaurants because these are places he can go and won’t get sick.

Please look online for the ingredients at these restaurant chains to be sure they haven’t changed:

Burger King

• Chicken tenders
• French fries

Chik-fil-A

• Chicken tenders
• (Grilled chicken contains palm oil.)
• (Chick-fil-A’s fries contain palm oil. )

Chipotle

• He gets a chicken bowl or steak bowl without a tortilla. He orders rice, peppers, the meat, and lettuce. I think he can have anything at Chipotle in the United States and be okay. Their website is very transparent with their real ingredients.

Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers

• Cane’s Combo (He can eat the chicken and the fries. He doesn’t eat the bread, sauce, or coleslaw.)

Whataburger

• Chicken strips
• French fries

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

• Hamburger meat plain; no bun
• French fries

In-N-Out Burger

• 4 – 5 hamburger patties plain; no bun; sometimes orders in lettuce
• French fries
• Chocolate shake

We are so grateful to In-N-Out Burger. This is one of my son’s favorites because he can have their fries and shakes. This is the only place he has shakes / ice cream. 

Unlike many restaurant chains, In-N-Out Burger makes their fries onsite. They cook them in sunflower oil. Sometimes he orders the burgers wrapped in lettuce. 

Eating palm oil free at other restaurants

At sit-down restaurants, he orders meat cooked with salt. He doesn’t eat bread. He can usually have barbeque sauce on the meat if we are at a BBQ restaurant.

At Mexican restaurants he orders fajitas and just eats the meat, not the tortillas or cooked vegetables. He doesn’t have the tortilla chips though they may be okay; you have to ask. He likely could have corn tortillas as well but doesn’t want them. We rarely go to Italian restaurants. 

Typically, we don’t go out to eat unless we have to. When we do, we look for places that will have meat they can cook-to-order with just salt. We’ve had luck at Outback Steakhouse and sit-down chains like Applebee’s, Cheddar’s, and Texas Roadhouse.

Going on vacation when you avoid palm oil

One of the biggest stresses is eating away from home when you are trying to avoid palm oil. Vacations are stressful. We always pack palm oil free safe foods when we travel.

For vacations, so we don’t have to rely on restaurants, instead of staying in a hotel, we usually rent an AirBNB or VRBO with a kitchen. Then we can continue to buy the above foods.

It’s a lot healthier to eat this way too. And it saves us money. When traveling, we always bring RX Bars, nuts, fruits, and other safe snacks whether we are driving or flying. If we go on a road trip, we will bring a cooler so we can keep more fresh vegetables and fruits. 

School parties and class treats without palm oil

My son brings a lunch to school everyday so we don’t have to worry about any palm oil in school lunches. Oftentimes, our son has to miss out on treats and snacks at school. There are sometimes food rewards and class parties.

In addition, students are allowed to bring in treats for their birthdays. If you have 27 kids bringing in doughnuts, that’s 27 doughnuts my son isn’t able to eat. (This isn’t necessarily a bad thing!)

We can’t anticipate birthdays so he will usually eat something from his lunch bag. Every so often, I will give him a Larabar Chocolate Brownie to keep in his backpack. If we know in advance, I will give him brownie that I made and froze.

For classroom parties, depending what they are asking for, I typically send in something safe he can have.

If it’s a party with desserts, I send brownies or cookies. If it’s a classroom celebration without dessert-type foods, I will send in fruit, Cheddar Goldfish, Rold Gold Pretzels, Pirate’s Booty, potato chips, or popcorn.

As he gets older, this becomes less of an issue.

Trying new foods when you can’t have palm oil

It’s scary trying new foods. Palm oil ingredients don’t have to be specially labeled. Know that:

Natural Flavors can contain palm oil.

Before buying anything new, we consider the type of product it is, and if it’s something that usually contains palm oil. We know that some products will always contain palm oil, and we won’t ever buy them.

In addition, we think about palm oil uses and how it’s used in the product. For example, if it’s a product that uses an emusifer, is there another emusifer listed that spells out the source, such as Soy Lecithin? If so, then this might be a safe product.

After that, we further look at all of the ingredients and cross-reference it against the list of hundreds of names for palm oil, knowing that palm oil can be hiding under many different ingredient names.

We introduce new foods sparingly and always one at a time. We watch for symptoms. If he is symptom free, the next time we will give him a little bit more. Once we determine it’s safe, we will add it more regularly.

Asking companies about palm oil in their ingredients

When we find something that seems safe, we email to ask the company about it — many times they don’t respond. Many times they don’t know. Oftentimes, they respond saying there isn’t palm oil in it but after pressing further, we learn there is.

Companies changing ingredients to include palm oil

We’ve also learned to always check labels before buying these products above. Companies change ingredients often. Since we learned of our son’s palm oil intolerance, there have been many processed food items he was able to have until they changed ingredients. 

Some of these include Peanut M&M’s, Mr. Goodbar, Honeycomb Cereal, Life Cereal, Oreo cookies, and Tillamook Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream. No loss on not having these products except that it’s discouraging to see more and more companies and products using palm oil.

For most products, I keep the packaging with the UPC codes as a reference. I also take pictures of them and mark them as Favorites so I can easily find them on my phone while I’m in the store.

Companies discontinuing products that they made without palm oil

We’ve also found this happen many times. There were many KIND bars my son was able to safely eat until they discontinued them. (KIND still has a few palm oil free snack bars that are palm oil free that we buy.)  It’s happened with several store brands of crackers and snack bars as well.

Palm oil free certification labeling is important

When a company has a product which earned Palm Oil Free certification, that’s of tremendous help. That means the company has taken the time to submit their product ingredients to an independent third-party organization. The organization checks all the ingredients in the product(s).

They check them down to the source — from the supplier. An example: We see Citric Acid on a label. The Palm Oil Free certifying organization will dig deeper to find out the source of that Citric Acid — what is in it?

Two independent Palm Oil Free certification companies are:

• Palm Oil Free Trademark Certification (POFCAP)
• Orangutan Alliance OA  

Our family seeks out products certified with a No Palm Oil label.

What do you eat if you can’t have palm oil?

We are using his palm oil allergy/sensitivity as a positive reminder to eat healthier food. We have learned SO MUCH about all the chemicals in foods and all the ways they use inferior ingredients to save money.

Our son knows how to read labels. He knows the common ingredients to look for which include Mono- & Diglycerides, Glycerin, Glycerine, Polysorbate 60, Polysorbate 80, Tocopherols, and anything with Stearate, including Magnesium Stearate and Calcium Stearate. 

If he is in doubt, he doesn’t eat it.

We’ve learned to assume everything has palm oil in it and be happily surprised when it doesn’t. He knows what he can order at the fast food restaurants if he’s out with friends. He says “no thank you” a lot to food. Sometimes it’s difficult.

He’s a kid in a processed food, snack-all-the-time, food-rewards-for-everything world.

However, I started this website as a way to empower our family — to feel like we were doing something to create awareness about the way palm oil is hidden in so many products. See About Us.

I also learn a lot by trial and error and like that we can log everything here, on this website, so we can reference it. 

We wanted other people to start reading labels and to see how companies are hiding palm oil in so many ways.

Most people just toss a box of Pop-Tarts and everything else in their carts without considering the ingredients.

We didn’t think our son could be the only one who has a palm oil allergy or palm oil intolerance. Even for consumers who don’t have symptoms from palm oil and palm kernel oil, we know many avoid it for environmental reasons.

There are a lot of people who even if they don’t give up palm oil completely, might be interested in buying it less often. These are our favorite items which make it easier to live without palm oil.

Focusing on real foods

The best thing we’ve done is to focus on healthy choices. We talk about all of the ingredients and chemicals in foods.

We try to empower our son to make his own choices. Just because it’s there doesn’t mean we have to eat it.

He and I get a great deal of satisfaction from hearing from readers via the comments below as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Please follow us.

We like to thank the companies for making products without palm oil ingredients so they will know consumers care and want these types of products.

Sometimes companies change their ingredients to include palm oil derivatives. It’s important to read ingredients every time.

Please note, we do not guarantee these products are palm oil free. The only way to know for certain is if it has earned Palm Oil Free certification.

Thank you for caring about this issue, either from a health perspective or an environmental perspective — or both! Learn more about palm oil health and the environmental aspects of palm oil. Even if you don’t try to give it up completely, there are many ways to learn how to use less palm oil each week.

As we try to live palm oil free, we think it’s better to focus on what we CAN HAVE rather than what we can’t have.

This is a running list of the foods my son eats that he can safely have. I try to vary his foods so he doesn’t tire of them.

Also, there are other foods without palm oil on our other lists. These above are the ones he likes and eats. I continue to update this list. Thank you for reading and caring about this issue! See Costco foods without palm oil for what we buy there for ideas.

This list is specific to personal care items with a palm oil intolerance.