Iceland has faced accusations about hypocrisy after it emerged that the low-cost supermarket was still selling own-brand products containing palm oil, despite a high-profile campaign against it.

The supermarket's controversial Christmas advert, which was not allowed to run on television due to being produced by a political organisation, Greenpeace, railed against the use of palm oil, and Iceland vowed to stop using it in own-brand products.

The company promised: "The Iceland no palm oil pledge is that by the end of 2018, 100 per cent of the supermarket's own label food lines will contain no palm oil, reducing demand for palm oil by more than 500 tonnes per year."

However, an investigation by the BBC found that the store still sells 28 own-brand products with palm oil or fat, as well as more than 600 from other brands.

One of these appeared to be a new product, hot cross buns, which would not have been sold in stores before Christmas.

Although Iceland justified the amount of products by explaining that many were frozen so the stock had not run out yet, palm oil was found in non-frozen perishable goods such as fairy cakes, hot cross buns and jam tarts.

One product contained a label saying that it was "new", suggesting it was not from old stock.