Ginsters announced last month that it had switched to margarine containing sustainably-sourced stearin as an ingredient in all its branded savoury pastry products. The company secured supplies from oils and fats processor AAK.
However, Ginsters purchasing manager Laurence Oldman said the cost of sustainable palm and its fractions was still an issue, because supply could not meet demand.
"It's not just about sufficient supply, but getting it at a cost you can deal with. It's very frightening and it's not going to remedy itself in the short term. At the moment there's a shortfall across Europe, enough to make businesses not come forward and offer sustainable palm-based products."
But he went on: "The feeling I'm getting is that sustainable stearin will become more readily available in 2012 and many oil and fat processors could offer the same kind of solution as AAK can now."
New Britain Palm Oil has vowed to build UK supplies of sustainable palm oil fractions for bakers and foodservice customers from a factory it has begun to construct based at its Liverpool refinery.