Updates

Johnson & Johnson have sent me a useless e-mail response saying that they have lots of different countries that they sell their products in so I need to contact my local office. They've only given me a telephone number for their UK office. I hate making phone calls, but if I remember during office hours, I will ring them for an e-mail or snail mail address to write to concerning their Neutrogena T/Gel Anti-Dandruff Shampoo. I forgot to go into Boots on Saturday to see if they stock No Flakin' Way.

Sainsbury's have written me a polite holding letter concerning the palm oil they added to the silverside joint of beef and promise to come back to me within 5 days.

Anti-dandruff update

After using the Hopes anti-dandruff shampoo and conditioner since we received them, I'm afraid to report that Geoff's dandruff is back and so I'll finish those products off and he'll have no choice but to go back to Head & Shoulders if we can't find something else that works. I had thought to get him the No Flakin' Way that Laura mentioned in one of her comments. Sainsbury's don't seem to carry it on their website, they list 29 Clairol Herbal Essences products but not No Flakin' Way and for sheer convenience, it would be handy if I could buy it with my weekly on-line shop but I'll pop into Boots next week when I'm in Cambridge and see if they have it.

Sainsbury's do carry Johnson & Johnson's Neutrogena T/Gel Anti-Dandruff Shampoo so I've written to J&J via their website asking whether it contains palm oil or palm oil derived products.

Whilst searching Sainsbury's site, I noticed that they now have an own brand of dishwasher tablets and in the absence (still) of a response from Reckitt Benckiser, at the same time as writing to them about the extraordinary use of palm oil in the silverside beef joint, I've asked Sainsbury's about that product as well.

As usual, responses will be posted here.

Beef joints for vegetarians?

I've been meaning to post this for a while as you can probably tell from the "Best By" date on this joint of beef. You can't read the ingredients list very well but here's what it says underneath "small silverside with added basting fat":
Beef (87%), Palm Oil, Rapeseed Oil

I really have to take Sainsbury's to task over this. I can understand them adding fat to a lean cut of beef so it stays moister during cooking but why would you add vegetable fat to a joint of meat?

It can't be to try and persude vegetarians to try eating beef and I hope I don't have to explain why I don't think this can't be the case!

It can't be on the grounds of cost because it must be cheaper when butchering the cow to use fat from the animal itself.

It can't be on the grounds of health because last time I looked into it, the World Health Organisation reported that Palm Oil wasn't particularly healthy compared to other kinds of fats.

It can't be on the grounds of fewer air miles because this was a UK Farm Assured joint and Palm Oil trees only thrive in the tropics so why on earth has Sainsbury's done this?!

Sainsbury's - yay!

When you're ordering groceries on-line, there's this lovely feature called your Favourites List. Every time you order something, it gets automatically added to your FL. After you've done a few shops, pretty much everything you buy regularly from the supermarket is on it and then shopping is really easy, you just go through the list ordering anything you've run out of. It used to take me 20 minutes with Tesco once I'd given the cupboards and fridge a once over.

As I said in a previous blog entry, I'm ditching Tesco and am currently going through the pain of shopping on-line at Sainsbury's without the benefit of an FL. The order took nearly two hours to do because my favourites list is in its infancy.

So far, the things I've discovered I've forgotten are limes, loo roll, onions, cashew nuts and rice. But hopefully, we'll get there in the end.

I was just waiting to see whether the Sainsbury's order arrived safely before telling Tesco why I'm now shopping elsewhere and chasing them for a reply about their fuel. I'll let you know when/if I receive a reply.

World Wildlife Fund publish palm oil buyers scorecard

The World Wildlife Fund has recently published its Palm Oil Scorecard for European companies, you can download it from this page of WWF website. As Sainsbury's is scoring so much better than Tesco, I am switching all my on-line shopping to Sainsbury's

I have also recently read, on a very recently discovered fellow palm oil avoider's blog, that Sainsbury's appear to have a similar honest labelling policy as the Co-Op when it comes to palm oil in their own-brand ranges.

Since starting this non-palm oil buying malarky, I find that my list of things that I buy from the supermarket is dwindling on pretty much a weekly basis but it's so much easier to get them to deliver things like wine (heavy) and loo roll and all the other things I don't want to cart back from the shops. As I live such a distance away (without a car) it makes more sense environmentally that they deliver it whilst they're on their round and uses far less fuel per customer.