When it comes to good bread, environmentalism is probably not the first thing that comes to mind – but it is when Golden Harvest are in the building.

Golden Harvest is the first Maltese food production company to publicly commit to removing palm oil in its products. The fact is that – unfortunately – most bakery and confectionary products, both locally and abroad, use environmentally destructive ingredients like Palm Oil.

Anyone who saw Iceland’s super-cute Christmas advert will be aware of the terrible consequences the harvesting of palm oil is having in countries like Indonesia. The industry is linked to major issues such as deforestation, habitat degradation, climate change, animal cruelty and indigenous rights abuse in the countries where it is produced, as the land and forests must be cleared for the development of the palm oil plantations.

It’s 2018, and it’s time to be more conscious of where your food comes from.

Lucky for you, Golden Harvest are leading Maltese brands towards a more environmentally friendly future, and they want you to come with them.

Golden Harvest have stopped using palm oil in their bread

Since last May, Golden Harvest made the conscious decision to stop using palm oil as one of their ingredients.

Their six most popular bread loaves – known affectionately as ‘The Big Six’ – have all gone palm oil free. That means their family favorite French Sliced loaf, along with their Wholemeal, Multiseed GI, Jumbo, Vivos and Barley & Oats loaves are palm oil and cruelty-free.

You’ll always recognise one of the Big Six breads; they all feature the ‘Palm Oil Free’ sustainable logo, which you should be looking for when buying food products.

They’re well underway with most of the products, pledging to remove Palm Oil from all of their product range.

The bread is just the beginning – Golden Harvest are serious about the environment, and are working hard to become Malta’s leading palm oil-free company.

Plus, knowing the awesome sandwich you just made is environmentally friendly makes it taste oh so much better.

They’ve also minimised their plastic footprint

By reducing the size of the bag – Golden Harvest have been able to cut down on the amount of plastic waste the company puts out, saving countless turtles in the process.

And are actively collecting rainwater to use in-house

Collected rainwater is used for secondary functions, such as cleaning, within the company, once again reducing the company’s impact on the environment. This practice has been in place for a decade, since 2008.

Their facility (which smells incredible, btw) runs on 10% solar energy

A number the company hopes to raise over the coming years.

And they’ve even committed to start replacing all of their disposable carton boxes with re-usable crates

Reusing items is a great way of helping the environment – just like you shouldn’t use plastic bags when shopping, Golden Harvest are cutting down their use of throwaway boxes to something much more environmental-friendly.

Pictured: Even Malta’s very own Xummiemu wants you to minimise waste

Tag someone who needs to start buying Golden Harvest!

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Johnathan Cilia

Johnathan is an award-winning Maltese journalist interested in social justice, politics, minority issues, music and food. Follow him at @supreofficialmt on Instagram, and send him news, food and music stories at [email protected]