In keeping with our all-natural food marketplace position from Monday 4th July 2016 all items listed on Yumbles must be completely free of artificial ingredients (barring a handful of exceptions - see below).
1. What are we defining as artificial ingredients?
Ideally your produce contains only wholefood, recognisable ingredients and no E numbers/ additives.
However we do accept produce with food additives (colours, flavourings, preservatives, stabilisers and such) provided that they are natural/ derived from natural sources.
If you aren't sure please check the E numbers in your ingredients with reliable directories such as Food Info.
2. Some examples of common artificial ingredients
The list of ingredients that we cannot accept in items listed on Yumbles includes:
- Potassium Sorbate (E202) - preservative
- Mono- and di-glycerides of fatty acids (E471) - emulsifier
- Various synthetic colours including the azo-dye colours (barring exception cases detailed in Section 3 below)
3. Permissable Artificial Ingredients (exceptions)
We are aware that there are some additives deemed essential for the nature and/ or safety of the produce without credible alternatives.
We are also aware when it comes to decorative special occasion & gift items where a big part of the emphasis is on the visual aspect of the product, there is not yet many viable natural alternatives for certain colours.
So that we can offer customers a broad choice and not limit whole genres of produce, with careful consideration we are accepting artificial additives in the following 4 specific cases:
- baking powder
- nitrates and nitrites: use for food safety in cured meats. They exist in nature but in food production are almost always synthetically produced.
- soya lecithin: used extensively in chocolate products. Naturally derived from soy however undergoes such extensive processing it is often considered artificial.
- artificial colours: permissible for use only where no viable alternative exists, and only for use as decorative elements on items specifically for gifting and/ or special occasion use only.
At Yumbles we continue to strongly champion the use of all-natural ingredients and will continue to review these exceptions and monitor as and when credible and economically viable natural alternatives for these ingredients become available.
4. Options
If your produce is available in an all-natural state however there are some completely optional decorative touches (for example certain colours of icing) that involve some artificial ingredients then these can be listed as options.
However:
a) it must be possible for the customer to purchase the produce entirely free of artificial ingredients
b) the options containing any artificial ingredients must be clearly indicated in the option itself and/ or description
5. Key implications when listing your products
Ingredients: make sure that you have completed full ingredient information in the ingredients field provided including disclosing the full details of any additives with stated E numbers. Strictly no generic references to "colours" or "flavours" or "emulsifier" or "preservatives" and such. We ask for full transparency of ingredients so that buyers can make an informed decision.
Value - "Artificial Ingredient Free": if your product is entirely free of artificial ingredients (which should be the case for most items barring the 4 permissible exceptions noted above) make sure that you select the value "Artificial Ingredient Free" that you will find under the "Health & Ingredients" values group so that customers can shop with confidence.
If your product contains artificial ingredients permissable under the exceptions noted in Section 3 above then do NOT select the Artificial Ingredient Free value.
If you do not select the value "Artificial Ingredient Free" then your product listing will contain the following disclaimer:
This product may contain artificial additives deemed necessary for the nature or safety of the produce. You can check the dietary info for more details or read our policy on additives.
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