“We recognise that the destruction of tropical rainforest due to palm oil production has a major impact on biodiversity, climate change and the land rights of local people.
“We will work with our member to encourage 100% sustainable sourcing across the sector and take action to encourage our members to check their supply chains as to whether they are using palm oil or products containing palm oil.
“We will also be urging them to put in place measures to ensure the palm oil they are using is from sustainable and credibly certified sources.”
The BHA lead is expected to be followed by members.
Phil Hooper, corporate affairs director for Sodexo UK & Ireland, said: “Sodexo has committed to selecting products and suppliers that support the development of a sustainable palm oil industry in all countries where we operate by 2015.
“We welcome the Government’s commitment to sustainable palm oil production and believe this is a paradigm shift in the way we approach such challenging issues.”
And Georgina Wald, head of franchising and communications at Dominos Pizza, said: “We have asked all our suppliers to qualify the source of their palm oil for our products and all source from suppliers who are members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.”