Plastic Free Snacking with Haumana Energy Bars
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Today we are looking at two of our favourite topics–food and plastic! Plastic packaging is a huge problem in our world and it is overwhelmingly present in our kitchens. But we all have to eat, so exploring plastic-free food options is something we love to do. We recently learned about Haumana Energy Bars and their mission to “create the best energy bars for our planet.” These bars are hand made and plastic free and we’re sharing our thoughts so you can get to know them too!
The Problem With Plastic
We’ve talked about plastic a lot on our blog (and will most definitely keep doing so) because it is a huge problem. Plastic does not break down and disappear–at least not in any of our lifetimes. At most, it breaks down into microplastics that end up in our oceans, our environment, and even our food.
The problem is that plastic sneaks into our lives in so many places! When doing my waste audit, I found that a large part of my garbage was plastic food packaging. This was no huge surprise as we had explored the plastic food packaging conundrum during our first Plastic Free July.
A Plastic Free Snacking Solution
Thankfully there are people out there coming up with solutions, like the Sidi and Guillaume at Haumana Energy Bars. One of the reasons we love small businesses so much is that they are often tackling problems in meaningful ways.
Energy bars–and most any granola or snacking bars–always seem to have individual plastic wrappers. Even bars that are deemed healthy or sustainably sourced are wrapped in a version of plastic. A part of Haumana’s origin story is trying to find a solution not only for a healthy energy bar, but also an earth-friendly packaging solution.
We couldn’t believe that with all the energy bars companies out there, none of them were offering a solution that truly took into consideration the wellness of our planet, our communities AND our health.
Haumana Bars – Our Story
Who is Haumana?
Haumana is a Canadian small business based in Montreal, Quebec. The company was started after Sidi and Guillaume spent time travelling in Senegal and learned about the Baobab fruit and how wonderful a food it is. This was the starting point to them dreaming up and creating an energy bar that is not only good for our bodies, but also for the planet.
Their focus was on eliminating useless individual packaging and the questionable ingredients that are found in a lot of bars. One of the good-for-us ingredients in these bars is the Baobab fruit. Haumana’s use of the Baobab fruit in the energy bars gives a unique partnership opportunity with communities in Senegal, helping women there on a pathway to financial independence.
You can read more about their origin story here: https://haumanabars.com/pages/ourstory
Plastic Free Energy Bars
Haumana Energy Bars are filled with so much goodness. An added bonus is that these bars are vegan, gluten free, and almost all of the ingredients are certified organic.
One of the unique ingredients in these bars is Baobab fruit. I wasn’t familiar with Baobab before trying the Haumana Energy Bars. I’d heard the name, but that was the extent of my knowledge. Reading about the fruit, I can understand why Sidi and Guillaume were excited to use the fruit in their bars. Baobab is abundant in vitamin C, antioxidants, and natural fiber. You can read more about this ingredient and why it’s health benefits in Haumana’s post “7 Surprising Health Benefits of Baobab Fruit & Powder.”
Haumana is truly focused on having the best ingredients in their bars for our health, the health of the planet, and for our communities.
Haumana Energy Bars Review
We were gifted two flavours of Haumana’s energy bars–their Monthly Discovery Flavour and their Baobab & Chocolate Flavour. My first impressions of both flavours were that they were not overly sweet, but were just sweet enough. I could tell that there were no fake, sugary binding ingredients in the bars, which I really appreciated.
I’m one of those people that snacks a lot and I try (most of the time) to snack on healthy foods. One thing I noticed with the Haumana Energy Bars was that I felt really good after eating them. These bars aren’t simply a quick sugar boost, but a fulfilling and longer lasting snack.
I actually felt satisfied and not hungry for a good stretch of time after eating a bar and was impressed by that. It made me think how well these would work as a trail food for summer hikes.
Haumana Energy Bars Packaging
Before accepting a gift from a company, Krista and I will always look up the product and company to make sure our values align. I was obviously drawn in by the no-plastic wrapper concept, but what got me even more excited was seeing a company encourage people to reuse their packaging.
I love finding new uses for items, so when I saw that Haumana designs their bags so that people can reuse them before composting them, I swooned. Haumana Energy bars are packaged in a stand up zippered pouch that is biodegradable, fully compostable, AND completely reusable.
The shipping material was a recyclable (and also fully reusable–I’m thinking keepsake storage or Christmas present wrapping) cardboard box with no unnecessary filler in the box.
Since these bars do not come individually wrapped in plastic, Haumana has saved more than 250,000 individual wrappers from ending up in landfills!! That’s a lot of plastic!
Haumana Energy Bars can be popped into your own reusable snack bag or they have perfectly sized reusable bags for sale on their site.
How to Connect with Haumana
You can learn more about Haumana Energy Bars and purchase some to try on their website. Find their website and social links below!
Website and Store: https://haumanabars.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haumanabars/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haumanabars
We hope you are as excited to learn about Haumana energy bars are we have been! It’s amazing to know there are options for reducing wasteful, single use packaging in our lives.
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8 Comments
Fadima Mooneira
This is the first time I heard of Haumana. They sounded awesome. Thank you for sharing.
A Sustainably Simple Life
Thank you Fadima! 🙂
readandreviewit1
Great review! This is my first time hearing about Haumana but they sound absolutely amazing – I completely agree that there aren’t enough plastic free foods out there so it’s great seeing this. It’s amazing that they’ve already saved 250,000 wrappers from landfills and they do sound like the perfect trekking snack! Thank you so much for sharing.
A Sustainably Simple Life
Thank you! I love how much plastic Haumana has saved already too 🙂
Molly | Transatlantic Notes
I love the lack of plastic in this brand and that the ingredients seem to be better than the usual bunch of chemicals and additives, etc. you usually find in snack foods. I will check them out!
A Sustainably Simple Life
Thanks Molly!
I really noticed a difference in the taste of their bars with the absence of all those additives. The Haumana bars were so much better!
Vanessa
So nice! I was mouth watering while reading through this post. I’m always happy to find brands and companies that take a more sustainable approach. These energy bars seem absolute divine and the fact that the package is plastic-free is amazing. Thank you for letting us know about this!
A Sustainably Simple Life
Thanks Vanessa! They really are as good as they sound and look! 🙂