The palm oil industry is struggling to overcome the negative perceptions shrouding palm oil, which is not only widely used as cooking oil, but also in processed foods, cosmetics, detergents, soaps, shampoos and bio-fuel.

"Certainly when you travel to Europe, the image of palm oil is very negative," says Nithi Nesadurai, president of the Environmental Protection Society of Malaysia. "It's already gotten into the psyche of the average person on the street that this is a crop that will result in destruction of forests and wildlife."

To overcome this stigma, the industry – sometimes in conjunction with manufacturers and environmental groups – has sought to create certification schemes to convince consumers and governments that palm oil can be grown responsibly and sustainably.

The first such scheme was the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) launched 15 years ago.

Getting RSPO certification is a time-consuming and expensive process. Independent auditors not only ensure that no forest with high conservation value is destroyed to make way for new plantations, but they also visit maintenance shops at plantations and mills to ensure waste products are stored and disposed of properly, make sure workers wear proper safety equipment to apply pesticides, and visit workers in their homes to check on their welfare. It also involves tracing the origins of palm oil, starting from the tree to the mill, ship and the factory, before a product can carry an RSPO logo.

The RSPO has managed to get most of the major palm oil companies in Malaysia and Indonesia – who produce 85 percent of the world's supply – on board, however that still leaves smaller companies and millions of smallholders.

In order to raise environmental standards and reduce the negative perception of palm oil, especially in the West, Indonesia introduced the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certification scheme in 2011. The ISPO's criteria are not as strict as the RSPO but have toughened over time.

"We improved ISPO because the dynamics of sustainability standards are always changing," Indonesia's deputy minister for food and agriculture Musdhalifah Machmud said after a recent palm oil event in Kuala Lumpur. "Before, we didn't need traceability, but now they need traceability in the commodities. So, we have put traceability in the new criteria." ISPO is also making changes to allow for independent monitoring, the deputy minister said.

Malaysia has followed suit by creating the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification. It has given till year end to all companies or individuals with more than 40 hectares of land to at least begin the certification process or face fines.

"40 percent of the oil palm planted area is tended by smallholders, and to get more than 600,000 smallholders to be certified under MSPO is a real challenge," said Malaysia's Minister of Plantation Industries Teresa Kok. "We are trying our very best to do it. It might be slow, but what is important is that we have put in a lot of effort, which means we are going to educate the people."

With MSPO not even reaching the sustainability criteria of the RSPO, which some environmental groups felt was already too lax, many will question the worth of the Malaysian national scheme.

However, Nesadurai takes a more nuanced view of the MSPO.

"While it may not have the complexities or the technicalities of an RSPO, it's a good step forward to get even the small players thinking about sustainability and raising their levels of awareness," he said.

In addition, Nesadurai said the Western governments and consumers need to give more recognition to the efforts being undertaken, for example, being prepared to pay more for palm oil that is certified as sustainable.

"If you don't get recognition, you don't get the premium, and you continue to be discriminated against. Then there is no point in having a certification ... why should we continue exporting to the EU when we can export to other countries in the world which do not require the same standard?" he said.

Malaysian and Indonesian officials undoubtedly think this valuable commodity gets a raw deal.

"Which vegetable oil has done what Indonesia and Malaysia are doing now in our industry?" asks the Malaysian plantations minister. "None. Why all the pressure and focus is just put on palm oil?"

Moreover, the recent fires that engulfed parts of Indonesia's Sumatra Island and Kalimantan on Borneo, blanketing the country and neighboring Malaysia and Singapore in toxic haze, certainly didn't help.

Even Indonesian authorities blamed palm oil companies and smallholders for starting many of the fires to clear the land, violating all the rules of the main certification schemes: RSPO, ISPO and MSPO. These are the kind of practices these schemes aim to stamp out. But until and unless they do, the industry – both the good, responsible players and the bad ones – will carry a stigma that will be hard to shake in the minds of many consumers.