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A note about our packing filler

05 Dec
We wanted to address a question that we are constantly asked – What is the packing filler you use to protect the PLAYin CHOC products we receive? The answer is Ecoflo – a UK manufactured 100% plant starch filler which is made from non GM maize starch from totally renewable sources, is home compostable, dissolvable in water and fully biodegradable. It’s the perfect environmentally ethical filler to pack our products in to ensure they reach you in optimum condition.
 
Environment, Products

Saying bye to 2018 and welcoming 2019!

01 Jan

What a year 2018 was!

 

We took PLAYin CHOC to many exhibitions and met so many lovely people! Thank you to everyone who supported us over this marathon year and to our fantastic stockists and customers in 20 countries!

 

 

 

We started 2018 with just 2 products – our collection of 18 endangered animal kids cubes, and our 10 piece box of chocolate only.

Over the year we added the rabbit collection of 4 designs, the woodland collection of 18 designs, the 5 piece chocolate only box, the Christmas collection of 6 designs and the advent calendar containing 24 designs (woodland and Christmas combined)

 

We supported charities including the wonderful event organised by WFN at The Natural History Museum with Sir David Attenborough! 

 

 

We were nominated for 6 industry awards including best new organic product of the year – winning 2 of them – a great taste award and a junior design award – thank you to everyone who voted for us!

 

 

In 2018 we also built our own little chocolate factory! It’s been a super busy and productive year!

 

We have a lot to look forward to in 2019 – new exhibitions to take PLAYin CHOC to, exciting new chocolate flavours and toy designs to be created and launched, and more passionate people to join our growing team.

 

 

We look forward to spreading joy to our customers and caring for the environment in the coming year! 

 

We are so grateful for your support! 

Wishing you all a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2019!

 

Maya & PLAYin CHOC team xx

Environment, Products

Our journey to use NO PLASTIC!

03 Mar
It is something I was determined was a must in order to create a truly Ethical brand! You would have thought it would be easy!
Decide you don’t want to use any plastic in your products and hey presto it can happen with ease.
We discovered it took 9 months to get there!
Our packaging and toys are made from recyclable and recycled card – that was relatively straightforward. We also made sure we used non plastic stickers so decided on recycled and recyclable stickers to seal our boxes. To wrap our mini chocolate bars – everyone told us it had to be in plastic – we disagreed. They told us compostable film would not be able to be flow wrapped (a way to seal food in a wrapper for maximum freshness) 
 
 So we researched and researched and finally found one or two companies that make compostable film that can be flow wrapped.
The problem was the temperature of the machinery would melt the delicate material or the material was too thick to go into it or our chocolate would be melted by the flow wrap machine!

Many more months of testing and research until we finally realised we would have to buy our own flow wrap machine and have it specifically calibrated to take compostable film made out of wood pulp and cellulose.
But first we had to check it could be Soil Association approved because our chocolate is Organic!
They had to be sure there was no risk of GMO contamination from genetically modified corn crops – and the company supplying the film confirmed there wasn’t – just wood pulp and plant based cellulose.
The film looks and feels like plastic and has the characteristics of air and water protection but will dissolve in the ground over 3 months with no harmful effects to the environment.
 
Here is a video showing how it happens:
 

We hope you agree it was worth it!

The film costs several times more than plastic but if everyone used it then it wouldn’t be!
 
Maya
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Environment, Products

Series 1

04 Oct

 

 

Playin Choc was born from my love of chocolate and need to create a great tasting dairy free recipe that my kids would also love. My youngest son Max is a great animal lover and very curious about all creatures in the natural world. This inspired me to create a series of educational toys based around endangered animals. Each toy is made from 100% recycled card board, printed with vegetable inks and is easily self assembled by kids aged 3 and over. What better way to learn about the natural world than through play and chocolate!?

Maya

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Environment, Products