Coconut Milk Organic

Kellogg Co. of Battle Creek, Mich., announced that it had stopped using coconut milk organic in its Cracklin' Oat Bran cereal. Sunshine Biscuits Inc. of Woodbridge, N.J. announced Nov. 16 that it would remove palm oil and palm kernel from its cookie and cracker products.

Sokolof, 65, placed advertisements in newspapers in October depicting nine products that he says are portrayed as healthy foods, but that are "poisoning" Americans with saturated fats. Sokolof is a multimillionaire who nearly died of a heart attack in 1966. He has spent $2 million on a crusade to pressure corporations in the food industry into making healthier products. His father and a brother-in-law died of heart attacks.

Industry sources estimate that coconut oil prices have fallen between 1 1/2 and 3 cents per pound i, following a three-month flat period. Some West Coast analysts report drops of as much as 2 cents per pound. Although supplies of oil from the Philippines have been restricted, US coconut oil inventories are so high that the lack of imports has not affected the market.

Some industry sources attribute the drop to food producers' phasing out their use of coconut and other high-saturated-fat oils; some sources cited an announcement last week from the National Heart Savers' Association (NASA) that five major food companies "have bowed to the pressure to remove highly saturated coconut oil and palm oil from their products" in response to NHSA's anti-tropical-oils campaign. The announcement contributed to coconut oil's decline.

However, the food companies mentioned in the NHSA announcement all report that they have been removing saturated fats from their products, for periods ranging from the last 6 months to 2 years. Though none has completely eliminated coconut oil, all are involved in research on replacing coconut and other highly saturated fats with other oils.

One source notes that the concern about saturated fats is largely confined to the US, which is only a minor part of the world coconut oil market. As long as US consumption habits don't trigger reduced consumption in other parts of the world, the effect on the market will be minimal, he says.

But another source says that if coconut oil's use in the US decreases, it will have to compete with low-priced palm oil in other parts of the world, driving down its price. USDA forecasts higher production of copra and coconut oil with copra production at 4.73 million metric tons, up from 4.39 million tons.