Palm oil facility is world’s first operation of its type

New Britain Oils Ltd is to invest circa £9 million in a new processing facility at its Liverpool palm oil refinery that will be the world’s first operation of its type dedicated to manufacturing bakery and foodservice products made with palm oil that only comes from certified sustainable sources.

Bakery fats make up approximately 40% of the overall demand for palm oil in the UK and despite many of the UK’s largest bakery manufacturers already showing significant interest in moving to fully sustainable products, only a small proportion is currently made from traceable, certified sustainable palm oil.

The UK’s largest bakery products distributor, Bako, has recently launched a range of sustainable bakery products based on fats supplied by New Britain Oils and its supply chain partners. Additionally, all of the UK’s major retailers have previously announced their intention to convert all palm based products to segregated, certified sustainable by 2015 and this new facility will bring that reality significantly closer.

The new facility will offer a complete range of high quality, affordable, margarines and bakery fats for use in pastries and cakes, puff and shortcrust pastry as well as shortenings and bread fats, all containing sustainable palm oil and palm oil fractions from a fully traceable source. Boxed palm oil will also be produced for the foodservice sector, such as fish and chip shops and restaurants, as well as for smaller food manufacturers who currently do not buy in bulk.

The new facility, which recently gained planning permission, will have the capability of meeting a significant percentage of the UK bakery and foodservice sector demand and is planned to come on stream by spring 2012.