YOUR INDUSTRY
FINDING NEW ZEALAND INGREDIENTS FROM PRODUCT TO PACKAGING Anne Hardie
Bags that will break down in the home compost bin
In the past decade Proper Crisps has made its mark in a competitive market by being creative and innovative with its range of products and authentic flavours. Pineapple salsa tortilla chips made from real pineapple, vegan barbeque rub crisps and very recently a range of handmade crackerbread are part of an expanded range that keeps pace with customers’ desire for something different and real ingredients increasingly sourced within New Zealand. To that it adds sustainability goals that go as far as home compostable bags which will break down in the home compost bin. The Nelson company’s commercial manager and head cultivator, Duncan Kerr, says the company wanted the bags to be compostable anywhere, like the home compost. Each bag is made from home compostable films that are internationally certified and are in the process of certification by New Zealand’s Crown Research Institute, Scion, to prove they compost in the New Zealand environment. That is important as every country has different requirements. Duncan says development is ongoing to get the bags breaking down more quickly, and ultimately to make 28 NZGROWER : APRIL 2022
the material from New Zealand ingredients rather than importing them from overseas to be manufactured here. That goal extends to sourcing all ingredients in the product line, and the company is already well down the road to achieving that. Potatoes are the easy ingredient to source, with Agria the main variety of choice. A fair chunk of the potatoes are grown in Canterbury, with other growers based in Pukekohe and Manawatu, plus organic potatoes from a grower in Hawke’s Bay. Purple potatoes from Canterbury have also been added into the mix after finding a grower producing big enough spuds to process. Duncan says Agria was chosen for its taste to add more flavour to the crisps, even though it meant adjusting machinery to handle the variety which doesn’t come in a nice, uniform shape for processing. (The crisps’ English founder used the term crisps and it has been retained to distinguish the hand-cooked crisps from mass-produced chips.) “We just retrofit everything we do to produce a better crisp.“ Since 2020, Proper Crisps has been transitioning to New Zealand sunflower oil from Pure Oil NZ which also supplies The Good Oil company, and they are working together to increase supply. “It turns out sunflower growing in New Zealand is beneficial for all involved.“
