Auckland Zoo is asking all you chocaholics

to consider the effects of consuming Palm Oil - contained in many confectionary items - when you go shopping for Easter goodies.

From the Auckland  Zoo Website :

Indulge this Easter – but keep it Palm Oil Free

Buy Palm Oil Free

For many of us, Easter is a time for some seriously good chocolate consumption! If you are a chocolate lover, purchasing Easter goodies for yourselves, your family, friends and/or workmates, we encourage you to use our Palm Oil Free Easter Goodie Guide

 All the products listed in it are totally palm oil-free - so as you crack into those delicious chocolate eggs, you can rest assured that what you are eating is not contributing to rainforest destruction and the loss of precious rainforest species.

Currently, the clearing of rainforests in South East Asia to make way for oil palm plantations is posing a threat to hundreds of animal species including the orangutan, Sumatran tiger, Asian rhino and Asian elephant. In fact, at the current rate of deforestation, these species could be extinct in the wild by 2022, and many more could follow if this continues. Along with the Palm Oil Free Easter Goodie Guide, you can also use the Palm Oil Free Shopping Guide

which lists other confectionary products (including chocolate) that are palm oil free.

Palm oil is used in at least one out of every 10 supermarket products, but there are still lots of products on offer to you that are palm oil-free. Auckland Zoo believes the only way to slow palm oil expansion is to avoid or reduce palm oil consumption. Find out more about palm oil...