Morning Foods Ltd / Buckley Foods Ltd - liars

This is absolutely unbelievable.

To my enquiry about whether the vegetable oil in one of their products is palm oil, I have received the following response:
Sorry to disappoint you but the vegetable oil used for all our Crunchy cereals is currently Palm Oil because it gives the best biscuit-like texture. We are currently considering the green palm scheme (see www.greenpalm.org) but until prices etc have stabilised we are staying with current suppliers.

I have asked for a refund. How the heck are ordinary consumers supposed to buy items without palm oil when the companies just lie when you ask them about their products and the labels aren't clear?

To enable anyone reading this to make up their own minds about whether or not they are liars, here is a full text of my e-mails to and fro. Mine are in ordinary type, theirs in italics.

-o0o-

I am trying to find a breakfast cereal that is both low in salt and - more importantly to me - free of palm oil. I am hopeful that some of your products meet this criteria? Please can you advise.

Thank you for your enquiry via the Mornflake website.
All of our Oats (Porridge, Jumbo, Bran etc) are low in salt in that we do not add anything. Our range of other breakfast cereals i.e. Mueslis, Oat Crunchy's and Oat Crisp products are low in salt but the Oatbran Flake products contain "medium" salt for processing reasons. All of our products have nutritional information on the packs which includes salt quantities.
None of the products we make contain palm oil.
(Note: the above emboldening is mine for emphasis.)

Thank you so much for your swift response. I am most heartened and reassured to receive the information in your e-mail.
Sorry to be a pain with another question. When I contacted Alpen about their muesli, they told me that the raisins in Alpen are sprayed with a small amount of oil derived from Palm Oil as a processing aid (Apparently processing aids do not require labeling). Do you know if your raisins use Palm Oil as a processing aid?
Best wishes and thanks again

You are right about labelling processing aids, it is not necessary unless they comprise or contain allergenic materials. Most Vine Fruit processors use an industry standard dressing oil, Durkex 500NG, to prevent the fruit from clumping into a solid mass during transit or storage in 12.5kg cartons. The oil is present at less than 0.5% and is supplied by Loders Croklaan who hold their cards very close to the chest and will only describe it as "A Non-Lauric Vegetable Oil". However this supplier has in the past advertised themselves as "The Global Source for Palm Oil" so I leave you to draw your own conclusions. The NG suffix indicates Non Genetically Modified and there may be some conflict of ideals between non GM and freedom from Palm.
Hope this helps

Many thanks for the information. I placed an order a short time ago avoiding any using vine fruits and was pleased to receive my order of Mornflake cereals yesterday. I have just enjoyed the Granny Smith Oat Crisp Cereal and also tried the Oatbran Flakes, both are really enjoyable.
I note that the Granny Smith Apple Oat Crisp Cereal has vegetable oil listed in the ingredients. Can you reassure me that the vegetable oil is not palm oil, please?
Many thanks,

Sorry to disappoint you but the vegetable oil used for all our Crunchy cereals is currently Palm Oil because it gives the best biscuit-like texture. We are currently considering the green palm scheme (see www.greenpalm.org) but until prices etc have stabilised we are staying with current suppliers.