Since 2005, s.a. Aigremont n.v.has paid more than lip service to sustainability, rolling out policies that ensure that the firm respects its fellow citizens and, more generally, respects the planet. Back then, this commitment gave rise to the renewable energy cogeneration unit that makes it possible to meet all the company’s heat and electricity requirements.

Check our progress at www.rspo.org

It is therefore only natural that, from the outset, we looked into the means available to produce our margarines and fats with sustainable palm oil, avoiding the uncontrolled deforestation of the equatorial forest and ensuring decent working conditions for plantation workers.

One of the means currently available is the initiative led by the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil). The RSPO is an organisation established by trade professionals, political organisations of producing countries and international organisations such as WWF to certify and trace the origin of sustainable palm oil as clearly and precisely as possible.

As this approach is the most practical, the most credible and the most effective at present, we immediately signed up. We thus became the first margarine factory to receive the “Supply Chain Certification” (SCC) following a specific and independent audit. This certification embodies our capacity to produce our margarines and fats using sustainable palm oil and allows us especially to offer products based on “segregated” palm oil, which is the highest level of certification currently available. This level implies a specific and precise traceability and a physical separation of this oil in our production chain. But while it imposes high requirements, this level of certification makes it possible to communicate precisely on the exact quantity of sustainable palm contained in a marketed product. However, to be eligible to use and communicate on the use of segregated palm oil on your packaging, it is necessary to obtain the SCC certification held by us.

Of course, the level of segregated certification is not the only one available within the RSPO system. In practical terms, this sustainable approach can be supported simply by becoming a member, without an audit and accessing only the “Book and Claim” level. It is also possible to undergo an interim audit to be able to use a “Mass Balance” palm oil, which imposes fewer requirements in terms of production but of course offers fewer opportunities in terms of communication. Details of these certification levels is available on the website www.rspo.org.

And because we have absolutely nothing to hide about this, the full list of the mills where our raw materials are treated is available upon request by sending us an email to info@aigremont.be.

Beyond certification, which is only an administrative step, and in order to materialise this sustainable approach, some of our products already have recipes containing segregated palm. This makes us the first fat manufacturers to market frying fat that is 100% segregated. Because our commitment to innovation is not limited to the technological aspect of our products…