FAQs

Crofter's is waiting for you in many major retailers across the USA and Canada. To find the nearest one, please visit our store locator.

The best by date is printed in black ink on the edge of the cap as BB/MA followed by the year, month and day. (For example, BB/MA 2027 JL 02). The best by date only applies to unopened jars and is a guide for best quality. As long as the jar remains sealed, the spread inside the jar will not go bad or become unsafe, but there will be a gradual loss of quality.

Because our fruit spreads are certified organic, free of preservatives, and contain ⅓ less sugar than a traditional jam, they need to be handled with more care in order to avoid early spoilage. Refrigeration is a must after opening to maintain quality and to avoid the fruit spread going bad. Here's some tips to prolong its life: Always use a clean utensil, put the cap back on the jar as soon as possible after use, and keep the jar in the coldest part of the fridge (AKA not the door). With some extra love and care, our fruit spreads last longer than 30 days, but since they are so scrumptious, we're hoping they'll be empty long before that.

First, we love label readers. It means you care about the food you and your family choose. In Canada, ingredients are listed in descending order based on weight. Please be assured all of our fruit spreads contain more organic fruit than any other ingredient thanks to our lower sugar recipes. However, Canada food labeling regulations do not allow different varieties of fruit to be grouped together in the ingredient list. That is why on our fruit spreads that have more than one variety of fruit (like Berry Harvest, Four Fruit, or Triple Berry) you will see sugars listed first, and then the individual types of fruit after. If you add up the weight of all the individual fruit varieties their combined weight would put them first in the ingredient list.

No. Period. The cap should always make a definite ‘pop’ the first time the jar is opened. Crofter's fruit spread jars are filled and capped while the spread is very hot (we heat it up to pasteurize it). As the product inside the jar cools, it creates a vacuum effect which causes the center of the metal cap to be sucked down. If there is no vacuum, it means that unsterile air has entered the jar. Unsterile air can carry microorganisms which cause food to spoil. So a jar with no vacuum (or no ‘pop) may be spoiled. So long story short? Does not ’pop' = do not eat. Contact us and we will get things straightened out for you!

Nope! You're good to continue enjoying that tasty fruit spread. You are welcome to remove it or mix it in, but it's a natural occurrence in a fruit spread that has ⅓ less sugar than a traditional jam and far more fruit. In some cases, some of the water which is bound by our top-notch pectin can separate which causes the watery appearance. It's completely normal. Some flavours are more prone to this than others, but this definitely does not mean that the fruit spread is spoiled. Taste on!

Yes! Our fruit spreads meet all categories of vegetarian including vegan. We use no animal ingredients of any kind, and our organic cane sugar is produced without the use of bone-char. Enjoy!

No. all of our fruit spreads are gluten free. Fruit is naturally gluten free as are all the ingredients in our fruit spreads. Our plant is also gluten free, since we only make fruit products.

The fruit pectins we use are made from apples or citrus. In fact, pectins are extracted from the apple pulp leftover from making apple juice, or from citrus peels, so in a way they are products of recycling. Just another way we're trying to cut down on waste and give you the tastiest spread.

Although our facility is not certified as ‘nut free’, we only produce fruit spreads in our manufacturing facilities. We do not purchase ingredients that may contain allergens. All of our suppliers must provide us with allergen statements to state whether their ingredients contain or may potentially contain known allergens. We also have manufacturing procedures which look to eliminate the risk of cross contamination to our fruit spreads.

No. No. No. And no.

Any naturally occurring sulfite levels present in our red grape concentrates are below the government standard of 10 ppm in the finished fruit spread. Under certain conditions, a wild yeast may develop during maceration of organic red grapes, and this yeast has the curious ability to form sulfites. While not always the case, this naturally occurring trace amount may end up in the organic red grape concentrate. Our suppliers are aware of this, and work with us to keep sulfites at 10 ppm or below. any spread without red grapes, however, is squeaky clean of sulfites.

We sure did! Even though our fruit spreads never had test results indicating BPA contamination, we took the safe route. In 2017, we changed our lids to a type of closure called BPANI (BPA Non Intent). These caps are made without any materials intentionally containing BPA. So we never have to worry about it, and neither do you.

Organic regulations clearly prohibit the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in organic agriculture and organic processing, however this restriction has not been well communicated to consumers. We want to be sure that our commitment to non-GMO foods is loud, clear, and double checked by an organization that only focuses on making sure foods are GMO-free: The non-GMO Project. Because we care.

Heat reclamation or recovery is the collection and re-use of heat that would otherwise be lost. Think of it like a form of recycling. By capturing the off-heat from various areas and machinery in our facilities, we can then use that energy to heat offices and even truck loading ramps to keep them clear of snow during those frosty Canadian winters. Learn more about each of our systems below.

To keep the 9,000 square feet of freezer we have at -18°C (0°F), heat on the inside of the freezer must be removed. Through a cycle of evaporation and condensation, heat from the freezer coils is recovered and used as free floor heat for the upstairs laboratory, office, and staff rooms. Heat is also fed into the main hot water loop, further alleviating the need for natural gas heating boilers to operate. The combined heat recovery of the natural gas generator and freezers allows the heating boilers to function as a back-up heat source that basically never comes on, other than on the coldest Northern Ontario winter nights.. when the bears are sleeping.

Within minutes, the 90°C (195°F) newly filled jars must be cooled to 40°C (105°F). To accomplish this, enormous amounts of 20°C (68°F) cooling water is sprinkled over the hot jars as they travel through a cooling tunnel. The cool water picks up the heat from the jars which raises the temperature of the cooling water to 35-40°C (95-105°F). To cool more jars, this water needs to be brought back down to 20°C (68°F), which would normally require a high-capacity water cooling unit (energy hog). But thanks to the ingenious thinking by our engineers and project managers, we created a more sustainable (and cheaper!) option. Multiple large holding tanks, totaling 300,000 L, collect the warmed-up water from the cooling tunnel. From there, the water passes through a closed return system that uses the natural cooling abilities of the earth. Water is circulated though miles of piping in our plant floors and outside deep in the earth where heat in the water radiates into the cooler ground, in turn cooling the water. During the winter, this keeps our loading ramps and parking lot areas snow and ice free, and it also helps with keeping the buildings at a comfortable temperature. The closed system continually circulates the water and maintains the required 20°C (68°F) temperature, without the high energy cost of a cooling unit. The bonus is not slipping around outside and staying toasty warm inside.

Making fruit spreads can be a messy endeavor. Things get a little sticky around here, so we need to be diligent in keeping our equipment shiny (and safe). At almost any time during production, you will find someone spraying and washing equipment. This, of course, also requires significant amounts of water - Water that ends up on the floor. We thought that disposing this amount of water was incredibly wasteful, so we commissioned General Electric to design one of the first-known micro-scale wastewater treatment plants. In principle, the treatment system works the same as any municipal treatment facility. Water is initially filtered and screened for most physical contaminants like dirt (and in our case, pieces of fruit). But the real magic happens in the membrane bioreactor (sounds cool, right?). Since there is no way to physically filter dissolved sugar from water, we rely on our army of specially selected microorganisms to literally “eat” the sugar. The wastewater enters a large vat filled with billions upon billions of good bacteria that consume the sugar, ultimately leaving it free of dissolved contaminants. From there, the water passes through final purification steps, and voila! Back to washing equipment if goes.