This is the Superfood Snacks FAQ page. We have compiled some of our most commonly asked questions here. Enjoy!

Why aren't the Reishi & Cordyceps Raw?
The most important thing to remember is this; mushrooms are not plants. The rules that apply to plants, fruits and vegetables, whether you are making herbal preparations or preparing food, just don't apply to mushrooms.

People who follow a raw food lifestyle are usually concerned with monitoring how heat affects the enzymes and other nutrients within the food they eat. There are many different opinions with regards to what temperature a food starts to loose its enzymes.

However, enzymes are not part of the package when it comes to the nutritional or medicinal value of mushrooms. The enzymes you find in fruits and vegetables are not in mushrooms, again, because mushrooms are not plants, they are their own kingdoms.

Plants are made form cellulose; mushrooms are made from chitin (the same indigestible fiber that makes up the shell of a lobster). The active compounds are the non-linear polysaccharides extracted from the indigestible cell walls. These are the compounds that give reishi and cordyceps mushrooms their "tonic" properties as described in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

There is no way to extract these polysaccharides unless you hit 160 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. This level of heat does not affect these polysaccharides but it is the only way you can extract them from the indigestible mushroom cell walls and then concentrate them.
These polysaccharides are not nutrients, they are triggers. Our digestive process cannot access the nutrients unique to mushrooms unless they are heated.

What is the difference between Raw Chocolate & regular dark or milk Chocolate?

The Cacao Beans we use are not roasted, they are sun dried. The big difference in this process is that the antioxidant levels in Raw Chocolate are much higher than after the Chocolate gets cooked at high heat and processed.

What is an Antioxidant?

An antioxidant is chemical substance that inhibits or slows oxidation.
In other words Antioxidants help protect your bodies cells from the damaging effects free radicals running wild in your body, which can oxidize your cells. ANTIOXIDENTS INHIBIT FREE RADICALS BY STOPPING THE OXIDATION PROCESS, HELPING PREVENT THE DAMAGE DONE BY FREE RADICALS.

What is the ORAC Antioxidant Test?

ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity- a way to measure the antioxidant levels present in food in this case. We had some of our products tested at an independent laboratory that measures ORAC antioxidant levels. We post the results so customers can see the high levels of antioxidants in some of our products.

What is a Superfood?
A Superfood in the dictionary: a natural food regarded as especially beneficial because of its nutrient profile or its health-protecting qualities.

Type of food believed to be especially good for human health, for example due to high vitamin, antioxidant or dietary fiber content.

Here is what the Wikipedia has to say about Superfoods.....

What makes Superfood Snacks different?

We go to great lengths beyond measure to deliver you truly the highest quality organic & wildcrafted superfood products made with in our opinion the best quality ingredients that are available in the global market today.

Why do we do what we do?

We Love it and we live it. Superfood Snacks was build around a lifestyle which includes eating predominately a Superfood diet in a balanced way to help all aspects of your life.

Why do the Superfood Snacks Bio-Bags use NatureFlex Films?

Cellulose film is the oldest transparent packaging product. First marketed in the U.S. in the 1920’s as cellophane, it was the most popular packaging film used until the 1960’s when polyolefin based products began to dominate the packaging market for a variety of reasons. In the more environmentally-conscious marketplace of today, cellulose film is returning to popularity because it is on average 94% from renewable raw materials. Unlike the man-made polymers in plastics, which are largely derived from petroleum, cellulose films are manufactured from a natural polymer, cellulose, which is a component of plants and trees. The raw material for NatureFlex, the cellulose film that Superfood Snacks is using, is a renewable wood-pulp sourced exclusively from plantations following sustainable forestry principles. NatureFlex also has excellent machineability and heat sealability and an excellent water vapor rating for a bio-polymer film.

Why do the Superfood Snacks Bio-Bags use aluminum?

Aluminum has been used since Roman and Greek times in various forms, and is used today in a wide variety of packaging materials. This metal acts as a very effective barrier to light, oxygen, odors, flavors, moisture, and bacteria. The new Superfood Snacks bags are designed to provide the freshness benefits of an aluminum barrier, using the absolute minimum amount of metal necessary. The NatureFlex film used by Superfood Snacks is the only metallized biodegradable film suitable for home composting because the level of metal is miniscule, less than 0.02% of the bag by overall composition. The ultra-thin layer is only a few atoms of aluminum thick, as opposed to the much thicker 180 ml sheets that are used by most coffee companies.

How is NatureFlex made?

Unlike the man-made polymers in plastics, which are largely derived from petroleum, NatureFlex is a natural polymer made from cellulose, a component of plants and trees. Natureflex is made from trees farmed and harvested specifically for cellulose film production. The raw material for NatureFlex is renewable wood-pulp, sourced exclusively from plantations operating sustainable forestry principles. The wood-pulp suppliers conform to the environmental standard ISO 14001 and have either achieved or are working towards Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC or similar) forestry management processes.

Cellulose film is made by digesting wood in a series of chemical processes that remove impurities and break the long fiber chains in the raw material. Regenerated via extrusion of a dissolved cellulose liquid as a clear, shiny film, with plasticizing chemicals added for flexibility, cellulose film is still comprised largely of cross-linked cellulose molecules. This means that it can be broken down by micro-organisms in the soil just as leaves and plants are.

How are the Superfood Snacks Bio-Bags Biodegradable and Compostable?

Tests have shown that the average total time for complete bio-degradation of cellulose film is from 28 to 60 days for uncoated products, and from 80 to 120 days for coated cellulose products like the ones we use. In lake water, the rate of bio-degradation is 10 days for uncoated film and 30 days for coated cellulose film. Even materials which are thought of as highly degradable, like paper and green leaves, take longer to degrade than cellulose film products. Conversely, plastics, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene, polyethylene terepthatlate (PET), and oriented-polypropylene (BOPP) show almost no sign of degradation after long periods of incorporation in soil.

In the Earth's crust, aluminum is the most abundant (8.13%) metallic element, and the third most abundant of all elements (after oxygen and silicon). However, because of its strong affinity to oxygen, it is almost never found in the elemental state; instead it is found in oxides or silicates. In the decomposition process for the Bio-Bags, the ultra-thin coating of aluminum oxidizes and turns into aluminum oxide which is inert, non toxic.

All NatureFlex films are fully FDA & EU direct food contact approved and certified compostable to the ASTM 6400 and EN-13432 standards. A small amount of fossil-based polymer is used in the process in order to provide the required functional properties such as moisture barrier and sealability. Renewability tests conducted in accordance with ASTM 6866 show that NatureFlex films are certified 94% bio-based, with the remainder being fossil-based carbon.

Are the Bio Bags packaging technology new?

Although cellophane and aluminum metallized films are not a new packaging concept, the process for producing metallized cellulose films that are compostable and biodegradable and have the ability to be strong and flexible is truly groundbreaking. Superfood Snacks has pioneered the first retail products in the marketplace that use this technology in a flexible stand-up bag format.

What is Kirlian Imagery?
Kirlian photography is named after Semyon Davidovich Kirlian and his wife Valentina who began their work with high voltage photography in 1939. Kirlian collaborated with his wife for over 30 years developing equipment and studying electro-photography.

The Kirlian's work was first made known to the general public in this country by a book published in 1970 by Shelia Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder titled "Psychic discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain". Kirlian work became so well know that the field of high voltage electro-photography is called Kirlian Photography.