But quality hasn’t been an issue: Last year, Two Farmers’ Woodland Mushroom & Wild Garlic and Herefordshire Sausage & Mustard flavors won the Great British Food award in the Savoury Snacks category. The eucalyptus film is much more expensive than plastic - over 10 times the cost, to be exact - and each packet retails for £1.20 ($1.40). Mason, who credits David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II with helping put single-use plastics on Brits’ radar, says his company’s bags take 30 to 36 weeks to decompose in home composting systems, or 11 weeks in an industrial composter. ![]() Following some trial and error, their material passed muster, and in 2019 Two Farmers officially launched its gourmet potato chips in 100% compostable packaging made from eucalyptus cellulose. ![]() After producing the film, they sent it off to TŪV Austria - a third-party certifier that verifies whether packaging is compostable - to have it tested for compostability and eco-toxicity. The duo found a laminator, which helped them figure out how to add plant-based glues and inks for printing. “So we were effectively just over-packaging packaging for packaging’s sake.” Next they looked at tins - “too expensive and probably too much waste for a small 40-gram packet.” Finally, at a packaging trade show they came across eucalyptus cellulose films in their raw state, and started talking to the producers about their potential for crisps bags. “We suddenly realized that we would still have to put a plastic bag inside to keep it fresh,” Mason says. When it came to identifying an alternative material, though, Mason and Green were stumped. “Our difference was sustainable farming, so we thought we should see that through to the crisp bag,” Mason says. ![]() The farm also has an anaerobic digester that converts farm waste into bio-methane - which in turn produces more than enough electricity to run the entire operation. ![]() Two Farmers sources all of its potatoes from Green’s farm in Herefordshire, where cover-cropping (planting a crop like clovers or alfalfa after the cash crop) is used to nourish the soil.
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