Palm Oil Principles
Hormel Foods recognizes the unique environmental and social risks associated with palm oil.
These risks require additional due diligence in sourcing, education and training to ensure the palm oil in our supply chain is not associated with human rights issues, deforestation or plantation expansion on carbon-rich peatlands.
While Hormel Foods is a relatively minor user of palm oil, we realize that responsible sourcing of even the smallest amount of this ingredient can make a difference. Therefore, we will only purchase palm oil from suppliers who comply with the following sourcing principles:
- Legally acquire land rights and operations.
- Follow local laws and regulations.
- Respect the rights of all workers.
- Respect the free, prior and informed consent of local and indigenous communities.
- Resolve social conflicts and provide remedy and redress for past violations.
- Include smallholders in supply chains and ensure equitable benefit sharing.
- Protect high conservation value areas and high-carbon-stock forests.
- Protect rainforests and peatlands, regardless of depth.
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions and institute a ban on burning.
- Follow the principles and criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
- Comply with our Supplier Code of Conduct, which outlines our expectations for all suppliers to uphold top standards related to food quality, product integrity, human and labor standards, environmental practices, business ethics and animal care. In the event an audit or other credible source reveals a supplier is in violation of these principles, Hormel Foods will require the supplier to implement corrective actions. If reasonable/appropriate corrective actions cannot be agreed to, Hormel Foods will suspend or discontinue purchases from the supplier.
Palm Oil Action Plan
- We purchase RSPO-certified palm oil. We made an initial commitment that by the end of 2014, we would purchase only fully traceable palm oil. We met this commitment by working with our suppliers and achieved traceability to the mill level. In the spirit of continuous improvement, we will continue to work with our suppliers to reach 100% traceability to the plantation level, which we estimate will be completed by the end of 2025.
- In 2015, all of our suppliers published sourcing policies for their entire operations that meet our principles and implementation timelines.
- All of our suppliers are required to report the locations of plantations, mills and refineries from which they source. They must also report annually their progress in verifying the palm oil they source meets responsible production practices. All of this documentation is reviewed by the Hormel Foods Deforestation Council.
- In addition, to ensure compliance with our sourcing principles, Hormel Foods will require suppliers to assess plantations in its supply chain (through internal and external assessment teams) and submit reports and findings annually, which will be reviewed by the Hormel Foods Deforestation Council. If a supplier is in violation of our sourcing principles, Hormel Foods will require the supplier to implement corrective actions. If reasonable/appropriate corrective actions cannot be agreed to, Hormel Foods will suspend or discontinue purchases from the supplier.
We will communicate our progress toward this action plan in future Global Impact Reports.
This policy applies to all products that contain palm oil that our company sells, in all countries where we operate.