Q. Do you sell any raw products?

A. We certainly do! One of our long-standing products is our fresh pesto. We have been making this since the 1980s using locally grown basil prepared on the day of harvest. We just thought the taste and texture were altered by heating, so opted to sell the product un-pasteurised as a chilled food. From there we have gone on to making many raw foods, including a great range of raw nut and seed butters.

Q. What do you mean by “Raw”?

A. We ask our suppliers to make sure the nuts and seeds we buy have not been heated during harvesting or primary processing. We store the nuts and seeds cool on our premises, and chill them to below 5°C before milling. When milling we check the product temperature all the time to keep it below 44°C. Both of our new big mills are air cooled, and are fitted with thermal cut-outs which just stop the machines above a preset temperature.

Q. Do you use recycled glass?

A. All of our jars are made in the UK. Among our suppliers are Rockware Glass, and Beatson Clark. Both have a commitment to using a very high proportion of post-consumer collected recycled glass cullet in their manufacturing. The use of recycled glass helps minimise land-fill, uses much less energy, and provides some useful employment. The colour of the jars may very occasionally vary, with just a hint of green in the glass.

Q. What about the rest of your packaging?

A. The cardboard trays we use are specially made for us locally in the South West from post-consumer waste. They are completely recyclable because they are made without staples or glue. We buy our steel lids from a UK company. They are recyclable in many parts of the UK. Our paper jar labels are printed by a local firm, and are unvarnished so that they can be put in the recycling bag, or composted. They are quite hard to remove from jars, so leave them to soak at the end of the washing up! Our tray labels are printed in-house on recycled paper, and are recyclable. The polyethylene tray film we use comes from another Cornish company, and we use the minimum thickness (down to 37 microns) and width of film (down to 300mm) so that we can to minimise the use of this material. It is recyclable in some areas of the UK where schemes exist.  

Q. Where can we buy your products?

A. The Carley’s range is mainly available through the network of independent whole-food, health-food, and organic food retailers across the UK. We also sell a small part of the range to Holland & Barrett. Many of our retailers are listed >HERE<.