A newly launched innovative snack brand Goodfish is embracing organic palm oil and has become Palm Done Right’s latest brand partner. The fried wild-caught Alaskan Sockeye salmon skins are marketed as a “brain and body snack” packed with “good fats” (omega 3), clean protein (full branched-chain amino acids), marine collagen, and zero-carbs. The company has recently backed its environmental commitment to using sustainably sourced organic palm oil, through this new partnership.

“We use palm oil to fry our crispy salmon skins into delicate crisps. It is simply the best vegetable oil to use to make the tasty, light, on-the-go snack we want to bring to our consumers. We set the bar high for the ingredients we source and use for our products,” says Goodfish Co-Founder and CEO, Douglas Riboud.

“We source Palm Done Right palm oil because it is 100 percent organic, fairly traded and their supply chain is completely transparent. With so much going on in the palm oil sector, we want to make sure we are doing the right thing, providing benefits for farmers and communities while protecting forests and wildlife,” he adds.

Goodfish is branded as propelling sustainable seafood into mass-market consumer culture. The company aims to further demonstrate that “innovation, transparency and progressive practices in the seafood industry can and must go beyond a niche appeal and tip into the mainstream.”

Eye on the palm oil chain
While palm oil is touted by Goodfish and other brands for its “superior functionality” and frying properties, ensuring that the ingredient’s popularity does not feed into deforestation practices during its sourcing is an endemic challenge that requires inter-sectoral collaboration.

Notably, in Europe and the US, mainstream consumers are starting to take note of wher their ingredients are sourcedand their potential impact on the environment. Spearheading sustainable palm sourcing traceability, The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) trademark has grown exponentially from 12 countries to 60 countries since 2011, and now appears on more than 400 consumer products.

Unsustainable palm oil sourcing may not only be detrimental to biodiversity – it may be directly linked to human health. A fifth of the malaria risk related to deforestation hotspots is driven by the international trade of palm oil, among exports of coffee, soybean, cocoa and beef. This is according to research conducted at the University of Sydney, Australia and University of São Paulo, Brazil, which advocates for more mindful food consumption and procurement.

Last February, PepsiCo released an in-depth global policy on sourcing sustainable palm oil to help address the challenges often associated with the popular edible oil crop and its widespread use in the food industry. Updating previous commitments, the new global policy covers the whole supply chain, including production sources and direct suppliers. The food, snack and beverage giant sends a clear message saying “we expect all of our palm oil suppliers to conduct business responsibly.”