World Fair Trade Day and Tropical Wholefoods

I’m not shy of the kitchen. In fact Little Miss Green loves my home baking and a house is just not a home to her without a full cake tin or biscuit barrel!

World Fair Trade day is being celebrated on May 9th and I was challenged to make the ultimate recipe by Tropical Wholefoods – an apricot kernel cake! The recipe is gluten free, using ground up kernels instead of flour, mixed with cinnamon and orange syrup.

World Fair Trade Day

World Fair Trade Day takes place on May 9th and is a global celebration of Fair Trade with worldwide events taking place.

Events include fair trade breakfasts, fashion shows, processions and protests, sustainable economy events, talks, live performances and taster sessions.

Tropical wholefoods

Tropical Wholefoods are a fair trade dried fruit company created by Adam Brett and Kate Sebag. Little Miss Green has been eating their chewy bananas and mango for years! If we run out in the house, I’m in serious trouble …

Now the company have introduced the first apricot kernels to the UK. These can be eaten as a snack or used in as a recipe ingredient.

[amazon-product small=”1″]1846040833[/amazon-product]Supporting fairtrade

Tropical Wholefoods works with business partners in some of the world’s poorer countries. They buy dried bananas and pineapples from Fruits of the Nile in Uganda which in turn works with more than 700 farmers. They buy dried apricots, walnuts, almonds and apricot kernels from Mountain Fruits which works with more than 1500 farmers in the remote, arid mountains of northern Pakistan . They buy dried mangoes and cashews from Farming Associations WOUOL and TON in Burkina Faso .

Using apricot kernals

Apricot kernels taste a little like almonds with hints of amaretti. They are rich in mono and polyunsaturated fats and fibre and are widely eaten by the
famously long-lived Hunza mountain people of northern Pakistan.

Ground up, they make wonderful ingredients for cakes and biscuits such as Italian amaretti biscuits.

Packaging

As you might be aware – Rubbish is my thing! I scrutinise the packaging that all my products come in and seek out those that don’t leave me with any landfill waste to dispose of.

Tropical Wholefoods have recently rebranded their packs and are using less [amazon-product align=”right” small=”1″]190445643X[/amazon-product]packaging by moving from gussetted packaging to slimmer quad packs.

They still use a polypropylene laminate as this provides the barrier quality needed to keep fruits and bars tasting great for customers. Polypropolene is recyclable where facilities exist but these facilities are not provided by local councils so unfortunately householders cannot recycle their packets.

A brighter future

However, I am assured that Tropical Wholefoods is working closely with packaging and machine suppliers to asses a wide variety of laminates including biodegradable, recyclable and compostable film and ink options.

There is a 15% weight saving per pack in the boxes Tropical Wholefoods are using to transport their bags and the boxes are made from a part recycled and part sustainable source.

I’m well aware that combining convenience, durability and effectiveness whilst bearing in mind the landfill issue is a big concern for many manufacturers, so I applaud Tropical Wholefoods for their transparency and hope they bring some good news soon.

Celebrating fairtrade day

In order to celebrate fair trade day I’ve been staying close to home and have been in the kitchen baking!

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing the recipe for apricot kernal cake. It’s heavy on the eggs, but makes a delicious celebration cake and what better way to celebrate world fairtrade day?