Sun Warrior's New Packaging

Most of you know that I'm a big fan of Sun Warrior's sprouted brown rice protein powder. I've had many shakes made with this throughout my pregnancy when I'm trying to get my protein intake up. They recently switched to a new package - a groovy looking bag. I asked them to explain the possible environmental and health impacts of their new packaging and how it is an improvement over the former jugs. Here is what they had to say...

As  Sunwarriors we have a great stewardship  and responsibility to the environment.  Part of our mission is to help heal the earth, the rivers and oceans of toxic filth and pollution.  In this pursuit we have asked ourselves this question:  "What type of packaging should  be used for health products?"

Plastic Bottles-  Right now we use Plastic bottles which are the status quo in the industry.  But are they the best?  Plastic is very toxic to the eco system.  Plastic creates massive problems for the waste disposal and contributes to the ugly garbage sites that are starting to dominate parts of our country.  Plastic bottles leach toxins--over time--into the food, herb or drink that is stored within it.  Also, plastic bottles are not good storage units and have a horrible shelf life for products contained in them.

Glass-  Amber Glass is good, but there are some problems with glass.  I live near a huge silica processing plant.  Silica is the sand used to make glass.  To process the silica, the plant has to use massive coal dryers that belch out high amounts of toxic mercury into the environment and leave a huge carbon foot print. Another problem with glass containers is that small glass shards dislodge and get into the products contained within them. This can be very dangerous to the consumers.  So the FDA has now mandated that manufactures who use glass X-ray each product to check for shards.

Eco-Friendly Bags-  Eco-friendly bags have a lower Carbon Footprint than anything else we could find (container wise).  They aren't perfect, but are very good.  Whereas plastic bottles leach contaminates into the product over time and glass bottles can get small glass shards in the product, the eco-friendly bags have little or no contamination at all. On top of that, eco-friendly bags maintain a high quality of freshness with a long-lasting shelf life of over 2 years.

Our biggest reason why we switched away from the bottles is that we tested significant amounts plastic chemical leakage from the bottles into our raw protein powder. We have had people say that the product went rancid- which is impossible because we have no fat in our product and it has to have fat to go rancid. When we tested the product it was not rancid, but our testers found amounts of plastic chemical in the powder that was altering the taste.  It turns out that the rancid taste was the plastic leaching into our product.

This put us on Full alert!  We looked at other types of plastic bottles, but the bottles we use are the highest quality bottle that packing companies us (that their equipment will handle). Mike Adams the health ranger (a good friend of mine) told us to stay way from any and all plastic bottles and product as they all have toxic chemicals that leach into the product and into the environment.

Our Foil bags have no leaching of toxic chemicals at all.  And on top of that, they keep our product fresh for a long period of time. A lot of companies are moving toward bags- New Chapter, Ultimate Super foods, Jay Rob, Sun food  and others are all moving away from Plastic Jugs to Eco Friendly bags..

We are concerned about bisphenol A, BPA and other chemicals in plastics and even though they are recyclable they emit plastic chemical into the air and into our water supply as they are reprocessed... It is not good.

We could use Glass bottles, but the new GMP regs will mandate any glass will have to be ex rayed for Glass shards.. That is not an option. Our goal is to have a 100% biodegradable non toxic bags as soon as possible. We are making steps in that direction.