Photo: ©  AFP/AAP/ADEK BERRY

How 'orang-utan friendly' is the palm oil imported and manufactured in Australia? Check out the WWF's scorecard on our palm oil buyers in full.

Palm oil is primarily produced in Indonesia and Malaysia and has become so popular with food manufacturers around the world that it is putting an enormous strain on the environment.

While palm oil exports pump more than $3 billion into the Indonesian economy each year, unsustainable harvesting has lead to Indonesia becoming the world leader in deforestation.

This loss of habitat is having devastating consequences for many animals, none more so than orang-utans.

These great apes are critically endangered on Sumatra and endangered on Borneo, and more than 1,000 die each year as a result of land clearing.

Forty per cent of all products found on our supermarket shelves contain palm oil, but unfortunately for concerned shoppers, there is no way of knowing which ones they are.

Due to the vagueness of labelling laws, palm oil can be labelled as more than a dozen things, and is often included under the umbrella term, vegetable oil.

In food, it can also be labelled sodium lauryl sulphate, sodium dodecyl sulphate, palmate, palm oil kernel and palmitate.

Palm oil is also used in cosmetics, under the names elais guineensis, lyceryl stearate and stearic acid.

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon currently has a bill before Parliament to make labeling of palm oil mandatory.

Food Standards have rejected similar requests in the past, on the grounds that food regulations and environmental concerns should not overlap.

Conservation groups like Zoos Victoria are urging everyone to write to the Government in support of the bill before submissions close on April 24. 
 
For more info, visit www.zoo.org.au/PalmOil.