Eating Without Palm Oil | List of Foods

My son gets sick from palm oil. Many times, people ask us what he can have. We 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

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. We update this list regularly.

Something positive that’s come of this is we all eat healthier, cleaner foods. We 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: We buy 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.

Fruits 

Examples of fruits he eats: Apple, banana, mandarin, clementine, orange, pear, peach, nectarine, grapes, pomegranate, plum, apricot, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, pineapple, cantaloupe, 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. 

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.

Meat

He will eat any meat. In restaurants we order it with just salt. At home, depending on the meat, we cook it with salt, real onions and garlic cloves. If it’s chicken, turkey, we may add olive oil or avocado oil.

We cook ground beef with garlic, onions, and salt, or with bacon and onions. Sometimes we add:

• Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning (from Walmart)
• McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning (from Costco)

Most often, we buy raw meat. However, he also eats these on occasion:

• Kirkland Signature Bacon
  • from Costco; regular bacon in blue bag
  • He’s had other bacon when we’ve been out and has been fine.
• Banquet Brown ‘N Serve Original Sausage Links
• 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)

I’m trying to get him to drink bone broth (from organic bones) as well. 

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.

Seafood

He’s been able to have any seafood. In restaurants we ask for it plain — just cooked with salt. At home, we use avocado oil and olive oil for fish. For shrimp, we use real butter, real lemon or lime, fresh garlic, and fresh herbs.

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.  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.

In addition, sometimes I use fresh herbs: basil, rosemary, dill, or sage. 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

• Potato Chips
  • Lay’s Regular Potato Chips; Cape Cod Potato Chips
  • (He can have any potato chips with a safe oil listed and salt.)
• Pretzels without palm oil
  • Rold Gold Pretzels – Original 
  • Synder’s Pretzel Rods
  • 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)
• Skinny Pop Popcorn Mini Cakes
  • Sea Salt
  • Cinnamon & Sugar
  • Salted Caramel
• Pirate’s Booty (not any store versions; the regular Pirate’s Booty)
• Rice rollers from Costco
• Rice cakes (Don’t buy with Tocopherols)
  • Quaker Oats Caramel Rice Cakes
• GoGo Squeez Fruit & Veggies On the Go: Zippin’ Zingin’ Pear and Boulder Berry

Snacks without palm oil

Snack bars

• RX Bars: Blueberry, Chocolate Sea Salt
• 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.)

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.) 

Frozen waffles

Most contain palm oil so we make our own. 

• Van’s Gluten Free Frozen Waffles Original

Nuts

He’s been able to have tree nuts as well as peanuts. He can have them if they just contain salt. We prefer the ones in the shell as they are less processed.

Smoothies

We buy frozen organic berries or use whatever we have fresh. Next, I toss in a 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.

Drinks

He only drinks water or smoothies we make at home. If he is out and has a soda, he avoids anything with grape, cherry, orange, etc. and sticks with name brand products. 

Cereals

• Kellogg’s Raisin Bran
  • Make sure it’s Kellogg’s; Post Raisin Bran contains Vitamin A Palmitate.
• Purely Elizabeth Blueberry Hemp Granola
• Seven Sundays 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

• 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

We have to make all of his desserts because the ones in bakeries and grocery stores contain palm oil. Together 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 soft Oreos.

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 started buying organic flour when I’m at Target.
• Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Baking Flour 
• 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
• 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.
• Organic eggs scrambled in real butter
• Leftover meat
• Banquet Brown ‘N Serve Original Sausage Links
• Fruit
• 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 a bar
• 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 lemons and limes and use them; we don’t buy the squeeze lime juices, etc. These contain additives that we aren’t sure are safe for him.

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
• (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 or coleslaw.)

Whataburger

• Chicken strips
• French fries

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

• Hamburger meat plain; no bun
• French fries

In-N-Out Burger

• Four 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. 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 others.

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. We 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. We 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.