Victoria’s most sustainable snacks, bar none

THE products you purchase at the shops may be wrapped in compostable packaging, but as Ellen Burns learnt, leftover rubbish is often not home-compostable.

She is the founder and sole trader behind We Bar None; an energy bar and cracker business manufacturing healthy snack foods in Ballarat, and the first Victorian enterprise to make home-compostable packaging part of products.

Lots Aussie energy bar brands have launched in recent years, but Ms Burns said her original recipes, and carbon-neutral, zero-waste, sustainable model create a point of difference within the snack food industry which is “one of the worst waste culprits.”

Ellen Burns’ bar and cracker brand offers 10 different snacks, free of guilt and waste.

“I’m the only energy bar in Australia with home-compostable packaging. That’s huge. It’s my first business which I’ve built organically and it’s self-funded,” she said.

“When I first started, I was hand-wrapping each bar in baking paper and gluing a little label on them to stay away from plastic.

“Now, I’ve got six bar flavours which are diabetic-friendly with no added sugar. I have four handmade cracker flavours which are made from just seeds; sesame, sunflower and flax seeds, and are low-carb and low FODMAP.”

The whole range is gluten-free, vegan and paleo. We Bar None uses vegetable and soy-based inks. Cracker boxes have an inner-sleeve which looks like cellophane, but is actually made from corn starch, just like packaging was before plastic.

Ms Burns started experimenting with energy bar recipes in 2013 when she was living in Canada. She was inspired by the country’s healthy convenience foods which were easily accessible and a contrast to the Australian market.

Ms Burns’ recipes have barely changed since she began experimenting with energy bars seven years ago, interested in nutrition and medicinal foods.

Seven years later, her bars are manufactured at Springhill Farm in Delacombe and she cooks up the crackers herself in a home commercial kitchen in Brown Hill.

“Springhill is a local, family business with a little factory that allows for the production of big volumes which I now need, and they have a proper machine to feed the roll of home-compostable packaging through,” she said.

During the pandemic period, the We Bar None online shop has been popular with people putting together care packages for family and friends in lockdown areas.

The products are currently stocked at The Healthy Hub, Go Vita, the Workshop Café and Hattie and the Wolf. You can buy directly from Ms Burns at Ballarat’s local farmers’ markets.

Visit webarnone.com.au.