Called to Action – Mince pie moral maze!

The Diocesan Environmental Group’s latest edition of small tips to save the planet looks at how to make your mince pie choices as ethical as possible! 

“Every time you spend money, you are casting a vote for the type of world you want.” – Anna Lappé.

Vegan?  Palm oil free?  Fair Trade?       Recyclable packaging?  Homemade? 

At Christmas, Britons eat about 780 million mince pies and bin around 3.5 million, with an estimated 300 tonnes of recyclable aluminium packaging ending up in landfill.

The fatty minced mutton filling of the original mince pies, has been mimicked by using, first suet, then palm oil or butter.

Palm oil is a cheap ingredient in about 50% of supermarket products. It is implicated in deforestation and climate change.

Iceland has previously committed to removing all palm oil from its own products saying there is no such thing as ‘sustainable palm oil’.

Tesco’s Finest and Iceland’s mince pies contain butter and no palm oil. Both did well in a recent ‘Which?’ taste test.

M&S, Waitrose and Oggs use ‘Sustainable’ Palm Oil (RSPO certified) in their mince pies.

Actions

• Avoid palm oil if you can or look out for the Sustainable Palm Oil logo.
• If you make your own mince pies, you have a huge opportunity for choosing Fair Trade ingredients, avoiding palm oil, and using reusable packaging.
• Use left over and broken mince pies in other recipes.
• Avoid black plastic trays which cannot be detected by the recycling machinery.
• If you can’t put aluminium in your kerbside collection, set up a collection bin for aluminium packaging either in your front garden or at church, and take to your local Recycling Centre.

Eco Church refs:  Buildings 23,  Community &Global Engagement 21,25,26,  Lifestyle: 6,9

Useful links:

• Which? Best mince pies
• Palm oil guide to Christmas food
• Recipe for chocolate orange and mince pie brownies to use up leftovers
• Recipe for vegan and palm oil free mincemeat