Our All-Natural Food Promise
Our mission is to make healthy eating easy and delicious for everyone (read more here).
One of today's biggest food challenges is navigating the processed food culture where you need a science degree to understand typical ingredients lists because they are so full of unrecognisable additives. On Yumbles we want you to shop with confidence.
The vast majority of items that you find on Yumbles are free of any additives. We champion produce that contains only wholefood ingredients with names you can recognise.
However there are some products on Yumbles that contain certain additives - these are only permitted carefully on a case by case basis only so that we can offer customers choice where good alternatives don't currently exist. They are either a) artificial colours on gift items where equivalent natural colours are less available, or b) additives that are deemed necessary for the safety or nature of the product. These additives must be clearly labelled in the product listing by the food maker so that you can make an informed decision.
Here’s the lowdown on the additives you might find in a small number of items on Yumbles:
- Naturally derived additives: there are some additives derived directly from nature such as colours taken from plants, preservatives like citric acid from fruit…and so on. If you see any unrecognisable ingredients/ E-numbers mentioned look for the “Artificial Ingredients Free” value where the food maker has confirmed that these additives are indeed naturally derived and not synthetic.
- Baking Powder: a common ingredient in most homes and used in cakes to give them rise. It contains one or more chemical acids.
- Nitrates and Nitrites used on cured meats to make them safe. These substances exist in nature (not least in leafy greens like spinach) but in food production generally curers use the same substance that has been chemically made in a lab. These additives are approved for food use by the EU.
- Soy Lecithin: this is a common food additive including being used as an emulsifier in chocolate to give it a smooth and creamy texture. While it exists in nature (it comes from soy) it is typically extracted and processed using chemicals. Because Soy Lecithin is derived from soy it may also come from genetically-modified crops so if that is a concern for you look for either the "Organic" value or "GMO-free" value to avoid soy lecithin from GMO crops.
Where any artificial ingredients are present in a product you should see that the value "Artificial Ingredients Free" is NOT shown, and the following message is also flagged to you so that you can make an informed decision:
This product may contain artificial additives deemed necessary for the nature or safety of the produce. You can check the dietary info for more details or read our policy on additives.