with Alter Eco founders

Chocolate and quinoa lovers? This article is for you.
Discover Alter Eco, a brand of delicious, exotic, high quality and healthy foods from around the world.
In today’s world of processed foods and giant food companies, Alter Eco offers high quality products combined with sustainable production and environmentally conscious packaging.

Alter Eco offers fair trade prices to its farmers (ensuring them a steady income), organic agriculture, compostable packaging and more.
It was the 1st corporation to register as a Public Benefit Corporation in Delaware – a legal status that means that they are a for-profit which intends to produce public benefit and operate in a sustainable manner.
We caught up with Alter Eco’s inspiring co-founder Edouard Rollet.

BWB: Alter Eco is unique in its dedication to a full circle of sustainability. Can you tell us more about it?

There are 4 pillars to our circle of sustainability.

• Being Fair Trade Certified: that means that we give full priority to small-scale farmers that produce greats products.
• Being non-GMO & Organic.
• Carbon Insetting: we have created something that is unique which is ‘Insetting’ for sustainability: we offset emissions by planting trees within the supply chain. In 2013, we planted 5,500 trees.
• Compostable Packaging: we have been doing R&D for home compostable packaging that does not use petroleum based products, is non-GMO based and made from renewable sources.
  One result of our work is already in the market: the wrappers of our chocolate truffles that you find at your local grocery store are home compostable and made from FSC certified Eucalyptus and birch.
  Another form of packaging, the stand-up pouches for our grains, is in the last phases of R&D and testing. We expect to launch home compostable, non-GMO pouches for our line of quinoa in the next 12 months.

Try home composting our truffle wrappers. After you are done eating these wonderfully smooth, Fair Trade Organic delicacies, bury the wrapper in a flower pot or in your backyard and watch it disappear.

What makes our packaging so unique is that it is not only renewable but home compostable too.
Try home composting our truffle wrappers. After you are done eating these wonderfully smooth, Fair Trade Organic delicacies, bury the wrapper in a flower pot or in your backyard and watch it disappear.
Post pictures of the process and join our packaging conscious community by tagging #burytobelieve.
This is truly what we call a “Clean” truffle!

Our 85% Dark Blackout has a smooth and creamy taste, yet remains dairy free, soy free and GMO free.

BWB: Your products are as varied as chocolate, rice, and quinoa. What are some of your bestsellers in the US?

All of our chocolates are doing really well, especially the 85% Dark Blackout which has a smooth and creamy taste, yet remains dairy free. It is also soy free and GMO free.
Our Royal Quinoa is also a bestseller. We are 1 of the top 2 brands of Quinoa in the US and at the same time we are the only one that is Fair Trade.

BWB: Where can we find you in the US?

All natural food stores, and mainstream stores too. We also have a store locator on our website.
And if it is not at your local grocery store, you can ask them to carry it!

BWB: What are your favorite recipes made with Alter Eco products?

I like to use our Jasmine Rice. It is ideal with a piece of fish or meat.
The flavor and high quality of our rice still blows my mind!
A more fancy recipe that you can find on our website is the Quinoa Burger.
Perfect for Memorial Day WE, which is fast approaching.

BWB: Do you also personally follow a healthy wellness routine?

I am so lucky to live in California. We do a lot of outdoor activities. The lifestyle we get is just amazing.
One of my favorite things is running in the Redwoods, near or in Muir Woods.
With my family we also focus on eating well and exercising.

We will also be launching our new quinoa pouch in home compostable non-GMO packaging in the next 12 months.

BWB: Any future projects for Alter Eco that you can share with us?

In terms of new products on the way, we have our Burnt Caramel Chocolate Bar, on shelves April 2015.

We will also be launching our new quinoa pouch in home compostable non-GMO packaging in the next 12 months.
This new packaging is a little revolution, so we actually consider this a new product, even though we have been selling our quinoa for about 10 years now!
Basically we are further pushing the envelope of sustainability: directly sourced, Fair Trade Organic Royal quinoa imported directly from the farms in Bolivia, and directly impacting the communities that grow it, packaged in home compostable packaging made from renewable sources…