Why We Use Organic

Simplicity only works when the materials are good.

F L Ō E formulations are deliberately pared back. We use relatively few ingredients, which means each one matters. We want to understand not only what an ingredient is, but where it came from, how it was produced and the standards behind it.

That is why, wherever a plant-derived ingredient can be sourced organically, we choose organic:

Oats. Coconut. Coffee. Cacao.

These are natural materials, but they are also agricultural crops. Long before they reach our studio, decisions have been made about the soil in which they are grown, the treatments applied to them and the way they are harvested and processed.

For us, provenance begins there.

A clearer standard

Organic does not mean that absolutely no crop-protection products can ever be used. It means production must follow a defined and regulated system.

In Great Britain, certified organic farming places strict limitations on agricultural inputs. Government guidance states that organic farmers should avoid artificial fertilisers and pesticides and, where intervention is necessary, may use only materials permitted under organic regulations. Certified producers are also inspected by an approved organic control body.

That framework matters to us.

Certification gives us something more tangible than a description such as natural. It gives an agricultural ingredient a standard behind it and helps create a clearer chain between the crop and the finished material we use.

Why pesticide use is part of the conversation

One of the organisations whose work has influenced our thinking is Pesticide Action Network UK — PAN UK.

PAN UK analyses the UK Government's pesticide-residue monitoring data and has repeatedly highlighted the presence of multiple pesticide residues in food and agricultural crops.

Their findings around oats particularly caught our attention:

“For example, in 2019, 94% of oats contained residues of more than one pesticide.”

PAN UK also reported that glyphosate and chlormequat residues were found in all of the grain produce tested in both 2018 and 2019.

Those figures relate to particular government testing programmes and years; they are not a claim about every conventionally grown crop today. But they illustrate something that matters to us: how an agricultural ingredient is grown is worth asking about.

PAN UK also draws attention to what it calls the “cocktail effect” — the question of how exposure to mixtures of different pesticide residues should be assessed. Its 2025 report notes that regulatory safety limits are generally set for individual pesticides, while PAN UK argues that mixtures deserve greater consideration.

For F L Ō E, the response is not to make frightening claims about ingredients.

It is simply to choose carefully.

Organic, ingredient by ingredient

We do not think of organic as a single claim attached to a finished bar.

We think of it ingredient by ingredient.

Fewer ingredients. Better understood. Carefully sourced.

Where organic certification is available and appropriate, it gives us greater confidence in the agricultural standards behind the materials we choose and helps us build the kind of supply chain we want F L Ō E to have: considered, increasingly traceable and transparent.

We don't believe good formulation begins when ingredients arrive in the studio.

It begins with how those ingredients were grown.