Victoria Crane, from Wilmslow, is one of Cheshire’s busiest, most successful entrepreneurs, following her founding of the Makers Markets, in 2011. Every week the endlessly popular markets pop up across the county and Greater Manchester, offering artisan-made goodies from sweet treats to homemade pies, natural soaps to jewellery and art.
During the past decade the businesswoman hasn’t simply sought to build a business, but a family too, enduring a seven-year battle to conceive, undergoing test after test and hearing nothing more than ‘unexplained infertility’. Deciding to grasp some control over the situation, Victoria set about researching what might be preventing her starting a family – a journey that has led to the birth of her daughter Arabella, now three, and the birth of a new business - Plastic Free Kitchen.
After reading Count Down, a book by American environmental and reproductive epidemiologist Shanna Swan on the impact of chemicals in our environment on female and male fertility, Victoria removed all plastics from her kitchen and from the food she bought and ate. This included utensils, mixing bowls, chopping boards, bowls used in the microwave, plastic water bottles, plastic packaging – anything that wasn’t metal, wood or ceramic.
‘Shanna Swan has clearly demonstrated links between harmful chemicals found in plastics, such as EDCs (Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals), to everything from fertility problems to obesity and even certain breast cancers,’ Victoria says. 'It’s quite scary reading, but in short what I took from it was that we are making ourselves infertile by our reliance on plastics and their ability to leach into our food and drink. I was working hard to eat well and keep fit and healthy, and here I was impacting everything by the plastic I used in my kitchen.
After the birth of her daughter, Victoria was introduced to Rachael Parks, from Worsley, wife of her personal trainer, Dan. The pair found common ground in their proactive approach to health and wellbeing and decided to launch Plastic Free Kitchen, working with local food hospitality businesses to assess and address the amount of plastic used in their kitchens.
Rachael says: ‘Phthalates (which are added to plastics to increase their flexibility, transparency and durability) and BPA (a chemical used in the production of polycarbonate plastics for strength, durability and imparting heat resistance) both leach from the plastic into our food and drink and are associated with many health issues, from hormone disruption to obesity and Type 2 diabetes to thyroid function.
‘There are alternatives, however, and they’re not inaccessible, so what we want to do is show people how to make healthier choices and empower people to be accountable for their own health while the research is ongoing and international regulations are slowly coming into play.’
‘What we can’t control of course is what happens with food and drink we choose from elsewhere, so I decided to be proactive with commercial kitchens, rather than domestic.’
Taking a “what or who can we influence?” approach, rather than trying to tilt at windmills, Victoria, who is currently pregnant with her second child, and Rachael decided to start on a hyper-local front.
‘I’m lucky, I have access to 17,000 local businesses through Makers Market,' Victoria says. 'I thought, surely this is a place to start raising awareness around safe alternatives to food preparation, cooking or serving with plastics?
‘I’d just like to know that the makers of fresh food I buy, the local restaurants I am going to, the local takeaways, have thought about it and implemented change wherever they can. This is where it gets quite difficult, though. There’s a lot of legislation around food hygiene, obviously, and regarding commercial kitchens there will need to be a lot of change long-term; there are many things we can’t change overnight. For example, using coloured plastic chopping boards is designed to prevent food contamination, so this can’t simply be changed as it’s currently a food hygiene requirement. In fact, wooden chopping boards are safer than plastic when proper hygiene is followed, as wood is more naturally anti-microbial, and you get micro-channels, gouges and scratches in plastic which offers many places for bacteria to hide.’
Rachael adds: ‘It’s known, but Environmental Health are currently not addressing this. We would love to have a conversation with them. We say we don’t expect people to immediately rush out and dump all their plastic chopping boards and replace with wood or bamboo, but once they get scraped, or gouged, to consider replacing with a more sustainable, healthier option. Nobody wants, or needs, a side of microplastics with every meal.’
To expand their reach into commercial kitchens in pubs and restaurants, Rachael’s husband Dan introduced them to his clients in the food hospitality industry.
‘Dan has some fabulous connections via his work, and we’ve been working with Bents Garden & Home, we’ve spent time with The Great North Pie Company and we’re working at the moment with The Cheshire Pub Company, which has 10 restaurants.
Matt says: ‘Cheshire Pub Company is proud to be involved this initiative to reduce plastic from our kitchens. Our collaboration began with open discussions and tours of our kitchens. Rachael and Victoria educated us on the chemicals released from plastics during cooking and their potential health impacts. This information captivated our entire catering team. They participated in a survey to assess the use of plastic containers and utensils within their departments at each pub and the consequences to health of using plastics. The results highlighted a significant reliance on plastic, driven by industry suppliers.
‘Our learning from this is that industry suppliers and hospitality venues are heavily reliant on plastics and change will only come through customers demanding alternatives. Our initial focus is now on identifying safe, sustainable alternatives and partnering with suppliers who share our commitment to sustainability. Plastic Free Kitchen is playing a pivotal role in informing our kitchen and food development teams and creating awareness when buying through highlighting the dangers of plastic chemicals and advising the proper use and maintenance of alternative materials.
‘Looking ahead, we plan to extend our plastic-free practices beyond utensils and containers. We are exploring sustainable alternatives for packaging, disposable items and other kitchen essentials. Our goal is to eliminate plastic entirely from our operations where an alternative is available.’
It’s a huge topic, but as Victoria says, awareness leads to understanding, which leads to change, and every step away from plastics is good for us and for our planet.
‘Once you know, you can’t not know,’ she says, ‘and there are many changes it’s easy to make. Our Instagram feed, @plasticfreekitchensorg, has loads of information for people interested in making simple swaps, and we hope we can help people make the change they want to.’
plasticfreekitchen.co.uk
Your plastic free kitchen
Top tips for change from Victoria and Rachael:
Never heat up plastic packaged food in the microwave. Transfer food into a heat resistant glass or ceramic container.
Try to reduce consumption of canned and processed food and drink. Food tins and drink cans are lined with plastic, and most processed foods are packaged in plastic.
Ditch your plastic chopping board for materials such as bamboo or wood which provide a natural antimicrobial surface, keeping your kitchen cleaner and your meals safer.
Swap your plastic sponges for eco sponges, Seep offer sponges completely made of plants, so once you're finished, just cut up the sponge and place it on your home compost or in your food waste bin.
Switch your plastic food prep boxes to glass or stainless steel. We love the meal prep bowl sets from Black+Blum, they're 100% leak proof, but what's really fab is they're dishwasher and microwave safe.
Invest in a water filter, such as Water2, which can be easily fitted. It filters out 99.9% of microplastics and other nasties such as lead or chlorine found in your tap water.
