Some of Australia’s most popular grocery items have made the list of brands Amnesty International wants banned because they’re sourced from ingredients harvested by illegal child labour.
Products on the offender’s list include brands such as KitKat, Smarties, Bird’s Eye, Dove, Cup-a-Soup, Flora margarine, Magnum ice creams, Surf detergent, Vaseline, Head & Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Olay, Oral B and Pantene Pro-V.
Many of the products on the list are made by some of the world’s biggest FMCG businesses, including Unilever, Proctor & Gamble and Nestle.
The problem, according to Amnesty, is the products contain palm oil from illegally logged Indonesian plantations that are harvested by children.
Amnesty is now petitioning the likes of Coles, Woolies and ALDI to have the products removed from shelves.
Amnesty Australia has just unveiled this video to draw attention to the problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2uI69aXNM8
An online Amnesty petition is urging supermarket bosses to rethink stocking the offending products and says customers should be better informed about where their groceries are sourced.
“Big brands are still profiting from child labour in palm oil plantations,’ it said in the petition. “It’s time to take the pressure up a level by focusing on three of their biggest clients in Australia – Woolworths, Coles and ALDI.
“Children as young as eight are doing back-breaking and dangerous work on these palm oil plantations, all while the brands we know so well turn a profit in the billions.”
It as been reported that representatives from Coles and ALDI have met with Amnesty to discuss the concerns.
