How do you make sure your fruit is from ethical sources?

We want to buy our fruit from suppliers that look after both their workers and the environment. Our fruit comes from all over the world and from thousands of different farms of all types and sizes – large plantations, co-operative groups, tiny family farms and even from the Amazon rainforest. This means that there is definitely no one size fits all approach to buying responsibly. We go about it in a number of different ways:

• We feel that it is really important to understand the issues relevant to each country and the pressures faced by our suppliers.
• We have developed our own set of minimum standards that detail our expectations for all the relevant environment and social issues and we are in the process of rolling out these standards with our suppliers.
• we know that there is no point recreating the wheel, so we favour farms certified by independent environmental and social organizations (such as the Rainforest Alliance), and pay a premium for certified fruit.
• we work on sustainability issues in partnership with our suppliers for particularly troublesome issues

Of course, we cannot promise that our suppliers are perfect. We're certainly not perfect, so we can't expect them to be either. But we do ask our suppliers to abide by fair, minimum standards, and improve their social and environmental performance year on year. Our strategy is to work with the ones that are the most committed to make real improvements and help them get there.

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Who are the Rainforest Alliance?

The Rainforest Alliance works to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behaviour. It not only looks at farm workers rights and wellbeing, but also protects ecosystems on the farms, which encourages bio diversity. We believe this sustainable approach is the best one. A well run farm with motivated workers means better quality fruit and better productivity, which means we get nicer fruit and the farms are more profitable. www.rainforest-alliance.org

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Are you going to move all your fruit to Rainforest Alliance certified sources?

No, it just isn't applicable for certain countries and certain fruits, like those that we source from Europe. But as the Rainforest Alliance expands into new certification territory, like pineapple, we'll be keen to keep on building our relationship with them. As they develop new standards for new fruits, we will assess their suitability for our growers. Outside of the world of fruit they certify coffee, cocoa and forestry. Find out more here: www.rainforest-alliance.org

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Why do you buy Rainforest Alliance and not Fairtrade?

Our fruit comes from all over the world and from thousands of different farms of all types and sizes – large plantations, co-operative groups, tiny family farms and even from the Amazon rainforest. This means that there is definitely no single certification scheme that will cover all our countries, fruits and the sustainability issues we feel are important. It is a matter of finding a certification scheme that fits us best. Whilst we believe that Fairtrade is an effective certification, particularly for addressing social issues, it is not widely used for the variety of fruits and the countries that we buy from and as such would significantly limit our purchasing flexibility.

Sustainable agriculture is at the heart of the Rainforest Alliance's efforts to conserve ecosystems by protecting healthy soils, rivers and wildlife and by promoting dignified living conditions for farm workers and neighbouring rural communities. The Rainforest Alliance definitely address all the sustainability issues that we feel are important, and certify farms that we buy from for a number of our fruits. We currently buy all our banana and some of our pineapple from Rainforest Alliance certified farms and are currently investigating opportunities for certification with some of our other fruits.

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Why don’t you buy Fair Trade or organic fruits?

It's not that we don't support these programmes as we think both are really valuable, it's more that if we have any money to spend on buying certified products, then Rainforest Alliance is our preferred one given the breadth of the issues that they cover and their suitability for our current purchasing patterns. Fair Trade is most effective for small farms and cooperatives. Organic focuses solely on environmental issues. Purchasing flexibility is important, we need to make sure we can buy the variety and quality and quantity of fruit that we need, and this is not always possible if we align ourselves to just one certification programme.

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Why don’t you buy organic fruit?

In terms of organic, when it comes to fruit, we care most about using the best tasting stuff, and ensuring it is completely natural.

Ultimately, our first loyalty is to the best-tasting produce. If an ingredient tastes better than any others we try, we will use it. So when we are sourcing ingredients we do not differentiate between those that are badged organic and those that are not; we choose the ones that taste the best.

We are very precise in the types of fruit we use and organic simply doesn't provide as many options, so you can't necessarily get the optimum variety of fruit organically. Suffice to say, if we try an organic ingredient that tastes better than our existing ones, we'll endeavour to use it. More specifically, it's extremely difficult to source the right kind of organic exotic fruits, such as mangoes and passion fruits, year-round, which we need to do to ensure consistent high standards.

Another important issue we have with using organic ingredients is the cost impact on the drinks - already a key issue being raised for our drinkers - as we want to make the best quality product whilst also making it as accessible as we can.

We want to minimise pesticide and other agrochemical usage on our fruit, and this is one of the requirements of both the Rainforest Alliance and also the innocent minimum standards for our fruit growers. Both sets of standards also ban the use of any of the 'dirty dozen' pesticides as listed by the Pesticide Action Network. To ensure the safety of our drinks we conduct independent tests on our ingredients, at an accredited laboratory, throughout the harvest calendar. Of the test results with anything being detected at all, these detections fall well within the Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) that you are allowed. Each year our policy will be reviewed and testing procedures will be updated.

We've promised our drinkers that we will always make all-natural drinks which taste the best in the market and do you a lot of good, and we believe they are as healthy as they can be. Overall we're always trying to improve what we do, and are constantly reviewing the ingredients we use, be that if they're organic or where they're sourced from.

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Do you worry about food miles?

Yes we do. That is why we always transport our fruit by land or sea, rather than air freight it. We get our fruit from lots of different places. We do try to get as much as possible from Europe, but when it comes to hot climate fruit like mangoes and passion fruit, we have to look elsewhere. Our policy is one of finding the best fruit and working out the best way to get it into our bottles so we can be sure our smoothies are the very best. Interestingly in our carbon audit we found that food miles contributes less than 20% of our overall footprint, and that to achieve the greatest reductions we should be working on areas like packaging and bottling. Doesn’t mean we won’t keep looking for the most efficient way to transport our fruit though.

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Do you buy fruit locally?

Our first commitment when it comes to fruit, is to use the best tasting stuff, and ensure it is natural. Part of ensuring the fruit is natural is that we buy it from areas in the world which are best suited for production without significant inputs (be it energy or agrochemicals). Currently just over half of the fruit we buy comes from Europe, and of course our tropical fruits like mango, pineapple and banana come from a little further afield.

With regard to buying fruits grown in the UK we face two main challenges. Firstly that these fruits are primarily grown for the fresh market (the fruit you buy whole in a shop), and as such they often do not have the taste characteristics that are suitable for a smoothie (they can be a bit watery – which is lovely fresh, but not in a smoothie). Secondly, as these fruits are grown for the fresh market they are very expensive, and with the amount of strawberries we need for our smoothie, we simply cannot afford them and still make your smoothies at a competitive price.

We also need to consider the social issues, by providing a market for products from less developed nations we can provide much needed income to local communities.

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Do you buy pineapples / fruit from farms using Paraquat and Bromacil?

Paraquat and Bromacil are herbicides which are used on pineapple plantations to prevent the growth of annual and perennial grasses around the pineapple crop. The main driver for the use of these chemicals is to prevent grass seeds being caught in the crown of pineapples sold to the fresh fruit market which can pose a contamination issue for customs in the importing countries.

The excessive use of these chemicals can pose a safety issue for workers applying the chemicals and result in pollution of local watercourses making the water unsafe for drinking or agricultural use. An additional problem is that the exposed soil around the pineapple beds is highly prone to erosion – losing valuable fertile soil and clogging watercourses with sediment.

Both the Rainforest Alliance and Innocent standards do not allow the use of pesticides that:

1. Are not register in the country for use
2. Are not register in the country for use for a specific crop
3. Are not allow by US or EU market
4. Belong to the Stockholm Convention list as POPs (persistent organic pollutant)
5. Belong to the Rotterdam Agreement list as PIC (prior informed consent)
6. Belong to the Pesticide Action Network list a Dirty Dozen pesticide

Paraquat is banned by the Pesticide Action Network, and is listed in their dirty dozen list, and as such is prohibited for use by both Rainforest Alliance and Innocent. It is highly toxic if swallowed and represents significant human health risk for workers applying the chemical.

Bromacil does not fall within any of the criteria listed above and is therefore allowed to be used. Bromacil causes an issue when used excessively, at which point it can contaminate water courses and also pose a hazard to workers applying the chemicals. In normal controlled levels of use it does not pose a risk.

Bromacil is used on pineapple plantations to control the growth of annual and perennial grasses. Both the RA and Innocent are requiring that ground cover around the beds is maintained, and is helping to recommend grass species that pose less of an issue - this not only results in reduced pesticide usage but also ensures that soil erosion on the farms is less severe.

Both the RA and Innocent standards have strict standards regarding the usage of chemicals on farms to protect both the environment (in terms of amount of chemicals used, when they are sprayed, protection of water courses etc ) and also for the protection of workers and the local community (time of application, weather conditions, protective equipment, access to the fields etc).

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