Sweet F.A Gluten-Free (situated on the beautiful Isle of Mull) is a small artisan company that has branched off from a local organic biscuit company, which does not use palm oil. The chief baker is gluten-free, so has created a small range of biscuits named after her initials.
These cookies are vertified vegan, but although preparation areas are cleaned, they are made on the same line as milk cookies, so not suitable for serious dairy allergies. Keep these cookies away from small children and pets, due to nuts, chocolate, spices etc. Read more on food safety for people and pets.
Choose from:
- Oat and Raisin combine chunky heart-healthy oats with plump sweet raisins, and a sprinkling of warming cinnamon.
- Cranberry Orange are fruity New-England inspired biscuits, with chewy berries and sweetened with orange.
- Peanut Butter use a special blend of gluten-free flours and generous proportions of delicious ingredients, for anyone to enjoy.
- Double Choc Chip offers an organic vegan and palm-oil-free version of many people’s favourite biscuit flavour.
If you can’t decide, buy a gift card!
The building is run on green energy and the ovens are heated with wood from local Isle of Mull supplies (which gives good baking results as well as being eco-friendly).
The packaging is easy to recycle (soft plastics should be recycled at supermarket bag bins). The company is trialling a better insert, but does not want to greenwash, by offering ‘eco plastic packaging’ if it isn’t). Most bio-plastic only combusts in industrial systems (putting into home compost bins) could still harm earthworms and other garden friends). Instead, this company offets carbon to World Land Trust, which Sir David Attenborough says ‘has more effect on the wild world than almost anything he can think of’.
This company has around 30 employees for their artisan bakery. It was founded by a couple who met as students in Scotland. He invited her back to Mull to start the bakery, and she said yes, because she likes cake!
Why Avoid Palm Oil in Biscuits?
If you’re vegan or have allergies, you’ll know that nearly all brand-name vegan biscuits contain ‘sustainable palm oil’. The sad fact is there is no such thing. This is just a self-policed term by industry (that Greenpeace says is ‘as useful as a chocolate teapot’) for a cheap oil that is flown thousands of miles to put into foods to save money, over using more expensive and better oils.
Meanwhile, while palm-oil-food businesses and supermarkets talk, our closest cousins are in danger of going extinct, with their forest homes torn down, in order to build cheap fast-growing palm tree plantations.
Unless baking your own biscuits, choose brands like this one that don’t use palm oil. They cost a little more, but they taste nicer, have better ethics – just eat less of them (!)
Where Is the Isle of Mull?
The beautiful Isle of Mull is one of the Inner Hebridean islands, lying off the west coast of Scotland. It’s home to the rare white-tailed eagle (a couple of them often turn up on BBC Springwatch).
