- Heston, full of Apple Puree
- Ben's nephew Will discovers strawberries
- Our office on a tidy day
OUR VALUES
Our values are very straightforward. All we want to do is make it easier for parents to give their children healthy, organic food with no added salt or sugar, and we want to do this in an environmentally friendly way. We try to operate our business as sustainably and ethically as possible, without compromising the quality of our products. We want to do what we can to make sure there's still plenty of nice, clean countryside around for our grandchildren to play in.
Our products will always meet the strict standards of our 4 Carrot Promise:
- Organic
- No added salt
- No added sugar
- Nothing artificial
Our organic ingredients
We use organically grown ingredients; if you see a non-organic ingredient on our labels that's because it's not available organically (such as water or bicarbonate of soda). We'll only ever use ingredients which we would be happy to feed to our own families.
Interesting fact: tests have shown that on average organic food contains higher levels of nutrients, including essential vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. If you'd like to know more organic facts click on the carrot below, or visit the Soil Association's website at www.soilassociation.org.
10 reasons to go organic
1. Top for taste
Many people buy organic food because they believe it tastes better than non-organic. This could be because organic fruit and vegetables tend to grow more slowly and have a lower water content, which may contribute to the fuller flavour some people experience. A poll in 2005 showed that quality and taste of food are important to more people than low prices.
2. It's healthy
On average, organic food contains higher levels of vitamin C and essential minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron and chromium as well as cancer-fighting antioxidants. Organic milk is naturally higher in Omega 3 fatty acids, Vitamin E, Vitamin A (Beta Carotene) and certain other antioxidants than non-organic milk.
3. No nasty additives
Only 32 of the 290 food additives approved for use across the EU are permitted in organic food. Amongst the additives banned by the Soil Association are hydrogenated fat, aspartame (artificial sweetener) and monosodium glutamate which have been linked to health problems.
4. Avoids pesticides
The best way of reducing your exposure to potentially harmful pesticides is to eat organically grown food, where their use is avoided. Over 311 pesticides can be routinely used in non organic farming and residues are often present in non-organic food. Over 40% of all non-organic fruit, vegetables and bread tested in 2005 contained pesticides according to the Government's Pesticide Residues Committee. The results for particular fruit and vegetables were much worse, e.g. chemicals were found in all oranges tested, 90% of bread, 72% of grapes, 95% pears.
5. GM-free
Genetically modified (GM) crops and ingredients are not allowed under organic standards. Over a million tons of GM crops are imported to feed non organic livestock that produce much, if not most, of the non organic pork, bacon, milk cheese and other dairy products in our supermarkets.
6. Reliance on drugs removed
Antibiotic additives routinely added to animal food to speed animal growth are linked with bacterial resistance in humans to the same or closely related antibiotics. Soil Association standards ban the routine use of antibiotics.
7. No hidden costs
Compare this with the £120m that tax payers fork out annually to pay for chemicals to be removed from drinking water, mainly as a result of the pesticides used in farming.
8. High standards
Organic food comes from trusted sources. All organic farms and food companies are inspected at least once a year. The standards for organic food are laid down in European law.
9. Care for animals
No system of farming has higher levels of animal welfare standards than organic farms working to Soil Association standards. Compassion in World Farming believes that the Soil Association's welfare standards are leaders in the field. (Joyce d'Silva, Director, Compassion in World Farming.)
10. Good for wildlife and the environment
Overall organic farming supports more farmland wildlife than non-organic farming. The UK government has said that it is better for wildlife, causes lower pollution from sprays, produces less carbon dioxide - the main global warming gas - and less dangerous wastes.
Source: www.soilassociation.org
Our packaging
We're constantly trying to make our packaging more environmentally friendly; food packaging presents real challenges as it has to protect the food inside and keep it fresh, but it mustn't cost the earth - in every sense!
Examples of what we're doing:
1. We use cardboard made from recycled pulp for our boxes.
2. Our Pasta and Cereal labels are printed on compostable paper, which means you could add them to your food compost bin and they would break down as fast as the potato peelings and orange peel will.
3. For our bottled products like the Sauces and Ketchup we use glass rather than plastic, so you can reuse the jars and bottles for dressings or jam - reusing is even better than recycling.
4. Our squeezy Puree and Jelly pouches and mini Juice cartons are made from laminated films which use a lot of energy to produce. However these weigh much less than glass so require a lot less fuel to transport them from factory to shop shelf, and after the pouches are thrown away they also take up much less space in landfill. Films also burn at a very high temperature; in Europe the resulting heat from the incineration is captured and used as the energy source to power factories and plants, instead of using traditional carbon-based fuel (such as oil or coal). If you'd like to know more about the life cycle of our cartons or pouches please get in touch.
Our office
We try our best to take as many of the obvious, simple steps that make a difference. Lee is Green Chief in the office and he makes sure that we all adhere to our environmental charter, which you can download at the bottom of this page. Here are a few of the day-to-day things we do:
1. Our lightbulbs are low energy, and on sunny days we often don't bother with the lights.
2. We buy our electricity from an eco supplier and we keep our thermostat low. In Winter we wear thicker jumpers, and we throw open the windows and doors on hot Summer days.
3. We always turn everything off at the end of the day.
4. We use hand towels instead of energy-hungry hot-air driers or disposable towels, and we wash them at the weekend.
5. Our office cleaning and kitchen supplies are eco-friendly.
6. We cycle or take public transport to work.
7. We switch off all the lights in the bathroom and kitchen whenever there is no-one in there (and sometimes when there is someone in there).
8. We grow flowers outside our windows and use rainwater from our water butt to keep them happy.
This is by no means an exhaustive list and there are lots of other things we do to keep Green Chief Lee smiling; if you have any ideas for us do drop us a line.
Peter Rabbit™ Naturally Better
Naturally Better is a corporate charter created by Frederick Warne & Co., publishers of Beatrix Potter’s Tales, which encourages licensees of the Peter Rabbit & Friends intellectual property to conduct their business ethically, honestly and responsibly.
If you would like to know more about Naturally Better visit www.peterrabbit.com/naturallybetter/index.cfm .
