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16 | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016 | FOOD & BEVERAGE REPORTER www.fbreporter.com ... from Page 15 a toast) was shelf-stable. She says she made a point of sourcing non-GMO ingredients, and wanted it to be low in sugars to be even healthier. Adir says she also immersed herself in nutritional analysis and labelling issues: “I wanted absolutely accurate nutritional labelling and all the correct certifications on health claims to ensure anyone buying the bread - and their children - would be safe from allergens.” In 2010 she launched her pioneering grain-free toast under the Life Bake label which quickly gained a cult following. But it was not until 2014 that Life Bake really took off. In that year, Adir says she heard Tim Noakes on the radio talking about Banting and it struck her that her toast “ticked all the Banting boxes”. She sent off a sample to Noakes, a type 2 diabetic who controls his condition with diet alone. He tried the product and came back with positive feedback. Word of mouth about her Banting-friendly toast started to spread rapidly through the LCHF community and demand rocketed. Adir then added several grain- free crackers to the Life Bake range. While the toast is nutritionally dense and very filling, she says, the crackers are lighter, using golden flax seed that has a more neutral taste and is perfect for a snack. A little over a year ago, Dis-chem agreed to list the Life Bake range. It meant Adir urgently needed to find a certified gluten-free, food- safe facility that could meet the increased volume as the Cape Town bakery she was working with at the time was just too small. Adir did her research and came up with one name: South Africa’s “gluten-free guru” Matthew Ballenden, owner of Fresh Earth Food Store in Emmarentia, Johannesburg, and more recently the Fresh Earth Bake House, a state-of-the-art, certified gluten-free bakery in downtown Jozi. Ballenden has his own successful range of Fresh Earth gluten-free baked products and recently expanded it to include grain-free products as well. ... continued on Page 18 Mathew Ballenden … “I’ve positioned our company to be all about nutrition and wellbeing, using minimalist, pure, simple ingredients. BAKING The Life Bake range … developed, says Bronwyn Adir, with blood, sweat and tears.