Ecover has posted an updated statement about its plans to replace palm oil with an algae-derived ingredient made using a new technology called synthetic biology. The statement includes a pledge to “label clearly” products containing the novel ingredient.
In April the green cleaning pioneer announced it had been developing a new ingredient with “breath taking potential” – algal oil. Ecover’s head of research and development, Dirk Develter, told The Guardian at the time: “Algal oils have a much smaller ecological footprint than most tropical oils, such as palm oil, making them ideal for home products, where tropical oils are widely used.”
The company said it expected to launch an algae oil-based laundry liquid in Europe “later in 2014” as part of a stated aim to ultimately replace all palm oil. It posted an infographic on its website explaining how algal oil safeguards biodiversity and offers an even better solution than certified sustainable palm oil (which Ecover currently uses) because it can be made locally and doesn’t compete with food or land.
But Ecover’s news has been picked up by environment and consumer groups who say that synthetic biology is a “virtually unregulated” technology that presents potentially serious biosafety risks. The development has also been reported on by the New York Times, which says Ecover is one of a number of companies “quietly applying biofuel tools to household products”.
Last week (2 June) several groups sent a jointly-signed letter to the company which describes algal oil as a “false solution” to the problem of unsustainable palm oil. The Canadian-based ETC Group has subsequently set up an online petition under the title ‘Synthetic Biology is Not Natural’.
In an updated statement on the subject (3 June) Ecover says that its own use of synthetic biology, athough in this case involving altering the algae’s DNA sequence, “embraces the natural functions of organisms”. The company also emphasizes that it is in the early trial stages of using algal oil, adding that “if we do start using it more widely, we intend to label it clearly”.
