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Whole Food Market U.K. Chain

by Posted in 3.2.3 Supermarkets & Chains Tagged , , , , , , , , 8 Comments

Rushing through the Cheltenham suburbs, had to buy wine so lurched into the huge carpark of an out of town shopping experience. By which I mean a cluster of huge supermarkets snarling at each other across an enormous expanse of tarmac dotted with a huddle of tiny trees at least one of which was sporting a plastic bag. Village Boy leapt out of the van and bounded off shouting, white hare like, about time. I was following rather more sedately when Whole Foods Market caught my eye. I had never seen one before and I admit I snorted at the messages plastered on the windows…. but I went to have a look anyway.

I have numerous issues with supermarkets which I won’t go into here. Suffice to say I use them when I have to but they deeply irritate, even anger me. The packaging, the waste, the plastic are just a few of the niggles.

And yet, I was about to have a supermarket epiphany. Yes Whole Foods Market are my idea of supermarket heaven. If there have to be supermarkets,  then let them be like this.

They have 

  • Unwrapped lettuce and unpackaged olives… beans featured shop Whole Food
  • Loose grains, rice beans and pulses
  • Loose tea & coffee beans.
  • Loose spices, herbs, dried fruits and nuts
  • A peanut butter making machine
  • oil on tap so you can refill your bottle

All of the above you can buy by weight in your own containers. This is  common in the U.S. and Australia. They have  bulk stores or  bulk foods aisle in a grocery store. In this case it doesn’t necessarily mean buying huge amounts but buying loose and unpackaged.

BYO Bags

While the carrier bags at the check-out are paper, the rest of the packaging, the produce bags and bottles they provide, are all plastic so you would have to take your own compostable pots and reusable bags. Easily done – find out how here.

Tare

The weight of the bag will make a difference at checkout in the price per weight.  The tare weight is the weight of the empty container. Whole Food Markets have weighing machines that allow you to do this yourself. It is very easy.

Lush

Whole Foods Market as it name suggests also has a organic eco criteria. This isn’t some giant Weigh & Save shop but a plush, lush shopping experience

Stores WLLM FOOD3

Since then I have taken the opportunity to visits as many Whole Food Markets as I can.

Find A Store

They have stores in London, Cheltenham and Glasgow

I have taken photo journals which I have posted up on Facebook. Follow the links for

Please check that stock is available before you visit – the photos are quite old now and NOT ALL STORES ARE THE SAME. For instance Glasgow does Ecover refills Cheltenham doesn’t.

About

This American company have recently opened some flagship stores in the UK It is funky, good looking and challenging. It boasts impressive eco credentials. I wanted to know more so I emailed ahead asking if it would be OK for me to take photos next time I visited. Not only did they say yes, but Renata Rees, Marketing Team Leader, offered to meet me. An offer I eagerly accepted. You can read about it here

More

Find more loose food shops here

 

 

 

 

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Film Plastic

by Posted in 1.2 Plastic The Product, 1.3 Plastic Types - Fact Sheets Tagged , 5 Comments

Ok some things you can’t find plastic free and can’t give up. So which plastic packaging has the least impact?

A lot of food now is packaged in lovely looking ,printed, laminated plastic film.  Or to put it more simply several layers of plastic each with different properties stuck together.

This method of making plastic films leads to a very versatile product that looks good and has a wide range of uses.

On the down side these films are difficult to recycle.

Because they consist of different plastics bonded together it is difficult to know what they are and how to treat them and separating the films is tricky and so very expensive. Films therefore often don’t get recycled but burnt or landfilled. You can find out more about the plastic used to wrap your food here.

The best advice here is avoid the fancy graphics and shiny films and go for the simple, eausily recyclable polythene.

Polythene  Wrapped Products

Goodness ON LINE

Internet store Goodness can supply you with a whole load of  beans and other dried stuff in polythene bags. At least they used to. It’s a while since I used them so double check and please report back!

Please note, many  of the companies featured on their website DO sell stuff in film BUT the 3kg bulk buy bags in the Goodness range, (their own range), always come in polythene bags. At least they used to. It’s a while since I used them so double check and please report back!

Their onward packaging is all recyclable or biodegradable.

Tesco In Store

Sell bulk pasta in polythene bags

N.B

Obviously this is not an ideal solution and certainly not a plastic free one, but it is the best I can come up with.

The best solution is of course  to buy loose then you could use your own  bags and create no waste at all. There are very few shops around that do sell loose but  you can find them here.

 

 

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Hodmedods – British Grown Beans, Grains & Pulses

by Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink, 3.6 Businesses & social enterprises, 3.6 P-f U.K Directory Tagged , , , ,

Did you now you can get homegrown British beans, lentils (soon) and even Quinoa. Many of them organically grown….

Introducing Hodmedod’s

“We work with British farms to source a range of top quality ingredients and delicious foods. We’re particularly interested in searching out less well-known foods, like the fava bean – grown in Britain since the Iron Age but now almost forgotten – and black badger peas.
THE GREAT BRITISH BEANS PROJECT
We founded Hodmedod following the successful Great British Beans trial project to stimulate and assess demand for indigenous pulses.”

So far so fantastic but it gets better…

Plastic Free Packaging

“Many thanks for your enquiry.

Using recyclable packaging is something we feel very strongly about and we are avoiding plastic where we can. We are aiming for all plastic-free packaging.
So far all our 500g packs of dried pulses and grains are packed in compostable plant based cellophane.
At the moment we are still struggling to find a compostable sticker adhesive, but you can peel off the sticker and pop the rest in the compost.
most bulk bags are paper
our packaging puffs are compostable non-GM maize.

Unfortunately we are unable to offer this for our snack range which are packaged in impermeable packaging and resistant to break down from the oils within them and no biodegradable packaging we are aware of fulfils these stipulations.”

Heres the product range but do check the site as there may be more by now

Pulses & Beans
Yellow Peas split
Green Peas, Split
Fava Bean split and whole
Carlin / Yellow / Blue Peas,
Red Haricot Beans

Lentils coming soon

Quinoa
Wholegrain White Quinoa

Grains
Spelt,
Emmer,
Einkorn,
Naked Oats

Flaked & Puffed Grains
Quinoa Flakes,
Quinoa Puffs,
Naked Barley Flakes

Seeds
Camelina Seed

Buy from the Hodmedod’s website

More

Buy Local, Buy British
Check out other British based stores and products HERE

Other options for loose beans include

Wholefood Market a supermarket chain
Weigh & Save shops a UK franchise
And other loose food outlets as listed below

Loose Food A to Z
Find out if a shop near you sells bulk food loose. This is stuff that that normally comes plastic packaged ie rice, pasta and salt. And yes these shops do exist in the U.K. There’s just not many of them.
Heres alist of towns with shops selling loose food.


 Packaging

While these shops provide bags and they are almost always plastic ones. You will need to take your own plastic-free /reusable bags.

More Food

Check out the tasty food index to find lots of plastic-free GRUB yum yum!

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Pulses & beans – Index

by Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged , ,

You can buy beans in a number of ways.
Dried loose or ready packed
Tins
Glass Jars

Lentils and pulses Are usually sold dried, loose or ready packed.

Loose

Dried beans can be bought loose
As befits a hippy supermarket Whole Food Markets do a good range.

Scoop and save shops Usually do red lentils and a limited range of beans.

Check out the loose food index for more loose food shops.

Loose Food A to Z
Find out if a shop near you sells bulk food loose. This is stuff that that normally comes plastic packaged ie rice, pasta and salt. And yes these shops do exist in the U.K. There’s just not many of them.
Heres alist of towns with shops selling loose food.


 Packaging

While these shops provide bags and they are almost always plastic ones. You will need to take your own plastic-free /reusable bags.

Online

Did you now you can get homegrown British beans, lentils (soon) and even Quinoa. Many of them organically grown….Introducing Hodmedod’s
“Using recyclable packaging is something we feel very strongly about and we are avoiding plastic where we can. We are aiming for all plastic-free packaging.
So far all our 500g packs of dried pulses and grains are packed in compostable plant based cellophane.”

They sell beans, grains and pulses. See the full list HERE

 

Buying Plastic Wrapped

But if none of these work for you try to buy products that are wrapped in polythene rather than film  as this is an easily recycled plastic unlike film which is not. More details here.

Internet store Goodness can supply you with a whole load of  beans and other dried stuff in polythene bags. Please note, many  of the companies featured on their website DO sell stuff in film BUT the 3kg bulk buy bags in the Goodness range, (their own range), always come in polythene bags.

At least that has been my experience but you should double check..

Their onward packaging is all recyclable or biodegradable.

Goodness Range ( that I have bought – there are lots more 

  • Kidney Beans
  • Black Eye
  • Lentils Yellow
  • Lentils Green

Tins

Many places sell tins of ready cooked beans.

Glass

You can find beans and chickpeas in glass jars in some Asian shops and polish delis.