Christmas 2024: Festive Meal

A festive meal that’s good for everyone - isn’t that what we all want? Yet sadly, some of the foods we typically eat at Christmas are produced at terrible cost to people far away. The sugar and cocoa used to make all those sweet treats may well have been grown by slaves. Cocoa is also at high risk for child labour: around 20% of all cocoa produced worldwide is produced by kids who work full-time instead of going to school. And, if you’re ditching the ham and turkey for salmon or seafood, be careful with what you buy: fish is the food we eat that’s most likely to be caught or processed by slaves.

However, do not despair! A Christmas meal that’s good for everyone is possible: click on the links below to find reliable slave-free options. You might also like to check out our accompanying chocolate gifts guide.

Drinks, juices and cordial

Most soft drinks contain a lot of sugar, an ingredient likely to be produced with slave labour. Fortunately, there are a many widely-available soft drinks that are made with slave-free sugar.

Certified fair trade sodas

Firstly, New Zealand has one soft drink company that sells drinks certified Fairtrade: Karma Drinks. Their sodas are all certified Fairtrade; their juices and ’sparkling’ range are not, but that seems to be because they don’t have sugar as an ingredient so will be slave-free anyway. They’re also organic. They buy the Kola nuts for their signature Karma Kola direct from the producers in Sierra Leone and have a foundation that funnels a portion of profits into development projects in those communities.

Karma drinks come in both 300mL bottles and 250mL cans in the following flavours:

• karma cola (including a sugar free version)
• lemmy lemonade (including a sugar free version
• gingerella ginger ale
• razza raspberry lemonade

in bottles only, they also have:

• lemmy lime and bitters
• blood orange
• blackcurrant
• red grapefruit

4-packs of cans (for $7-$10) are available at many supermarkets. In addition, you can buy boxes of 15 x 300mL bottles ($50) and trays of 12 cans ($45) direct from their website; or you can buy singles from various health food shops and supermarkets for around $4-$6.

Another fair trade option is Six Barrel Soda Co. They don’t display any fair trade logo on their packaging, but all the sugar in their products is certified fair trade by WFTO. The sugar is also all organic.

They sell a wide range of soda syrups (which are designed to be used in soda-stream machines but also work well as regular cordials) - $16.95 for a 500mL bottle. Flavours include:

• raspberry and lemon
• cola
• cherry and pomegranate
• rose lemonade
• grapefruit

Buy direct from their website or from Farros, Moore Wilsons, Common Sense Organics and some New World stores (or check out the full list of stockists).

They also sell craft sodas in 330mL bottles ($47.50 for 15 bottles through their website) in the following flavours:

• ginger ale
• cola
• raspberry and lemon
• lemonade

Ice tea with slave-free tea

Liptons ice teas (but not their ice tea sachets or chai sachets) are made with Rainforest Alliance certified tea. Some are also sugar-free, but for those with sugar we don’t know if the sugar is also slave-free. Liptons ice teas come in 500mL and 1.5L bottles

Dilmah ice teas (sold in 4-packs of cans) are also made with slave-free tea (read to find out why we think this).

Sodas, juices and drink syrups made with Australian sugar

Lastly, many drinks sold in New Zealand are made with Australian sugar - which is slave-free due to the strong employment law in that country. These are a second choice for us as they aren’t actively providing alternatives to people in slavery, but you can still be confident they are slave free.

Drinks made with Australian sugar include:

• sparkling drinks from:

  • Bundaberg. This includes their classic ginger beer, but also a range of sparkling fruit drinks including passionfruit, guava, mango etc. in both bottles and mini cans.
  • Coca cola. This includes the classic Coca cola soft drinks (Coke, Fanta, Lift, L&P, Sprite) as well as the Schweppes and Deep Spring soft drink ranges.

• Juice from:

  • Keri (most Keri juices don’t actually include added sugar but those that do - like their cranberry and tomato juices - use Australian sugar).
  • Thextons

• Cordial from:

  • Roses*- comes in lime and lemon flavours
  • Schweppes
  • Bickfords - which have a number of more adult flavours, such as lemon lime and bitters

• Iced coffee syrups from:

  • Bickfords (note that we don’t know if the coffee in these is slave-free; however we are including them as they include far more sugar than coffee, and we know the sugar is slave-free).

*Note that some speciality shops also stock Roses cordials manufactured in South Africa, which come in a much wider range of flavours. These are produced by a different company and we do not know if they are made with slave-free sugar. Roses marmalade is also made by a different company and, again, we don’t know if the sugar in those is slave free.

Snacks

Many snacks, sadly, have slave labour in their supply chains. Here are some slave free options.

Chocolate

Photo by Charisse Kenion on Unsplash

Around 20% of the cocoa-growing workforce are children. Our favourite child-labor-free option is Tonys Chocolonely. As well as being Fairtrade certified, they actively buy from areas where child labour is common (so they’re making a difference where its needed most), and they pay workers enough for them to earn a living income so they have less need to have their kids working on the farm. Available at many supermarkets (around $9-$10 for a 180g block) as well as in bulk online.

If that doesn’t work for you, our cocoa list has a large number of options for chocolate blocks. Our 2024 Christmas chocolate guide also covers a wide range of luxury chocolate products that are free of both child and slave labour.

Chocolate sweets

Guylian seashell chocolates are made with Fairtrade certified cocoa (although their sugar is not Fairtrade certified). Widely available in both 65g and 250g boxes (around $5-$6 and $16-$18 respectively).

In addition, chocolate sweets with Rainforest Alliance certification are widely available. Options include:

• Smarties (around $3 for a 120g bag).
• After 8 mint thins (around $9 for a 300g box)
• Woolworths premium cocoa dusted almonds; $4 for a 150g bag.
• Waikato Valley Chocolates’ dark chocolate coffee beans; $9 for a 180g bag - available at The Warehouse
• Waikato Valley Chocolates’ scorched almonds (available in a range of sizes and in white, milk and dark chocolate)

The Alison’s Pantry Indulgent range (in the bulk bins at PakNSave and New World) also uses Rainforest Alliance cocoa. Their gingerbread almonds look particularly Christmassy!\ \ See our 2024 Christmas chocolate guide for further options.

Biscuits

All Griffins chocolate biscuits* are made with Rainforest Alliance certified cocoa - that includes Christmas favourites such as mallowpuffs and toffeepops.

*with the exception of their cameo cremes, which are made in an overseas factory.

All Arnotts biscuits, including their Farmbake and Creme shortbreads and their Scotch fingers are all made with slave-free Australian sugar.

Our gifting chocolate guide also lists chocolate biscuit sampler boxes.

Crackers

Just Kai focuses on fish, cocoa and sugar, the foods at highest risk of slavery in their supply chain. However, we are aware that slave labour is used in many of the ingredients used to make crackers - especially tomatoes and palm oil. If you’re serving crackers, perhaps as part of a cheese board, Arnotts is making excellent efforts to remove slave labour from their cracker supply chain. They sell a cheeseboard sampler box, as well as various crackers and savory biscuits including their cracker chips, sourdough crisps and shapes ranges.

If you’ll be serving smoked salmon on your cheese board, see below for slave-free options.

Nuts

In 2022 Just Kai conducted extensive research into the nut industry.

Almonds, pistachios and walnuts

Good news! All almonds, pistachios and walnuts sold in New Zealand will be slave free - you can buy any brand :-)

Hazelnuts, cashews and brazil nuts

Child labour, forced labour and/or terrible working conditions are particularly common in the hazelnut, cashew and Brazil nut industries. Unfortunately we didn’t find any reliably slave-free Brazil nut suppliers, so recommend you avoid buying those.

For cashews, we recommend the Yava range (available at New World or online from The Baron) which come in 35g bags in a range of flavours. In addition, if you are able to source products from the US or the UK, Fairtrade certified cashews are available in larger quantities from:

• beyond the nut and Uprise Foods in the US
• Sainsburys own brand in the UK

For hazelnuts, look for nuts grown in New Zealand, the US or Australia. Many Kiwi hazelnut orchards sell direct to the public online - Hazelz sells a particularly wide range of products made from NZ-grown hazelnuts.

Macadamia nuts and peanuts

Peanuts and macadamia nuts are generally slave-free but not always. We recommend buying slave-free where you can, but no worrying too much if you can’t.

We haven’t found any peanuts we are certain are slave-free, but we can recommend Fresh Life macadamias. These use Australian macadamia nuts and are available from Woolworths. Note that we do not recommend any other Fresh Life products unless stated elsewhere.

Desserts

Ice cream

Ice cream contains a lot of sugar, and sugar is one of the foods most likely to be produced with slave labour. It also commonly includes cocoa or chocolate: as well as being at risk of slave labour, more than 20% of the world’s cocoa is grown by kids.

To avoid supporting all that when you buy ice cream, our most recommended options are Ben & Jerry’s and Little Island.

Ben and Jerry’s

Not only is the whole Ben & Jerry’s range Fairtrade certified (meaning not just the sugar and cocoa, but also the coffee, bananas, vanilla and nuts they use are Fairtrade), they’ve also committed to making sure all their cocoa farmers get a living income. They’ve got a bunch of other awesome values too!

Ben & Jerry’s do 458mL ice cream tubs in a wide range of flavours, including:

• Chewy gooey cookie
• Hazel-nutten but chocolate
• Chocolate fudge brownie
• Chocolate chip cookie dough
• PB over the top

they also do Non-dairy ice cream in:

• Chocolate chip cookie dough

Ben & Jerry’s are stocked by most supermarkets, as well as many dairies and petrol stations: look here for your nearest stockist. They also deliver. Around $12-$15 for a 458mL tub.

Little Island

Little Island no longer display the Fairtrade logo on their packaging, but we have learned from correspondence that all their cocoa and all their sugar is Fairtrade certified. They sell 900mL tubs of:

• chocolate
• vanilla
• hokey pokey

as well as further flavours in 450mL tubs and 145mL single-serve cups. Around $12 for 900mL or $10 for 450mL

Stocked at some supermarkets, as well as health food stores. All Little Island ice creams are also vegan and organic.

Kāpiti, Magnum and Trumpet

If those don’t work for you, we also recommend Trumpet, Kāpiti and Magnum as good slave-free options. Although these don’t use slave-free sugar, they do use Rainforest Alliance certified slave-free cocoa in all their products. Cocoa is the ice cream ingredient most at risk of slavery in its supply chain, making that ingredients slave-free means they’re much lower-risk than their competitors.

These should all be available at your local supermarket. They all have single-serve options that’d be great for your Christmas BBQ; magnums also come in 445mL tubs, Kāpiti in 1L tubs. All three include dairy free/plant based options.

Chocolate Christmas pudding

Woolworths has two own-brand chocolate Christmas puddings made with Rainforest Alliance certified cocoa. A 100g gluten-free chocolate pudding for around $5, and a 600g hazelnut chocolate pudding for around $20.

Sorbet

Little Island sorbet (around $14 for 900mL) is made from Fairtrade sugar. Look for it at most supermarkets.

Jelly

If you want to serve jelly (or are making trifle), the Woolworths own brand jelly crystals range are made with slave-free Australian sugar. The jelly crystals come in strawberry, raspberry and lime flavours; around $1.20 for an 85g box.

Baking ingredients

Image credit Jennifer Pallian on Unsplash

Christmas is a great time to bake! Fortunately, both cocoa and sugar that’s certified free from child and slave labour is readily available throughout New Zealand. For slave free sugar you might need to look around a bit, but slave free cocoa and baking chocolate are available at every supermarket in New Zealand :-)

Check out our section on nuts, too, if you’re using those in your baking.

Sugar

There are two certifications we trust for slave-free sugar: Bonsucro and WFTO. Both involve thorough audits for child and slave labour on sugar plantations and in sugar mills, although the latter is significantly better for the workers. Bonsucro checks for safe working conditions and ensures workers are paid at least the legal minimum wage for their country; in addition WFTO does a range of things to support small producers. We also trust Australian-produced sugar, due to the strong labour laws in Australia.

Woolworths own brand sugar has Bonsucro certification. They do white, brown, raw, icing and caster sugar in bags between 500g and 5kg. It’s cheaper than Chelsea :-)

Woolworths own brand golden syrup is made with Australian sugar, so we recommend that, too. Around $2.50 for 400g.

Trade Aid sells 400g bags of WFTO-certified muscovado sugar ($6.99) online. They also sell 1.5kg bags golden sugar through New World and various online retailers. As of 15/11/24 they appear to be out of stock in most places, but we did see them at NXP.

Ready-made icing

We’ve contacted a number of ready-made icing brands, and the only one we currently recommend is Royalty. It’s made with Australian sugar. Available widely in both plain and almond flavours, around $6 for a 500g box.

Cocoa products

Child labour is a huge issue in the cocoa industry, and forced labour is also a problem. We trust three certifications to indicate cocoa products are slave-free: Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade and WFTO. Structurally these are quite different from each other, but they all include checks for child labour, forced labour and safe working conditions. We also trust Sāmoan cocoa due to the strong labour laws in Sāmoa.

Cocoa and cacao powder

• Rainforest Alliance-certified cocoa is available from The Warehouse’s Market Kitchen brand ($4 for 250g).
• West Coast Cocoa’s RA-certified baking cocoa is available online and from many health food shops (around $17 for 250g)
• organic Rainforest Alliance-certified cacao is available from Woolworths’ macro brand (around $7.50 for 250g); Woolworths own brand also have RA certified cocoa for around $7 for a 375g box. Note that both of these seem to be out of stock at time of writing (16/11/24).
• you may find WFTO-certified Trade Aid cocoa powder at some health food shops, but Trade Aid seems (as of 16/11/24) to be out of stock on their website.

Chocolate chips, drops and melts

Using the same criteria mentioned above, we recommend:

• Dark chocolate chips:

  • Woolworths own brand, 200g for around $3.20, RA certified
  • Market Kitchen (Warehouse own brand), 400g for $5, RA certified

• Dark chocolate drops:

  • Nestle Baker’s Choice choc bits, 200g for around $6.50, RA certified. If you are concerned about Nestle’s ethics, read up on why we are comfortable recommending them.
  • Woolworths own brand, 200g for around $3.20, RA certified.
  • Whittakers pips, in 72% and 50% dark chocolate, RA certified, available from bulk suppliers such as Gilmours (around $60 for 2kg).

• Milk chocolate drops:

  • Nestle Baker’s Choice choc bits, 200g for around $6.50, RA certified
  • Woolworths own brand, 200g for around $3.20, RA certified
  • Whittakers creamy milk pips, RA certified, available from bulk suppliers such as Gilmours (around $60 for 2kg).

• White chocolate drops:

  • Nestle Baker’s Choice choc bits, 200g for around $6.50, RA certified
  • Woolworths own brand, 200g for around $3.20, RA certified

• Chocolate melts:

  • Nestle Baker’s Choice melts, in dark, milk and white chocolate, 290g for around $5.60, RA certified (the white chocolate isn’t RA certified as it’s cocoa-free).

Baking chocolate and cacao nibs

• Baking chocolate is available from Woolworths own brand in dark and milk (RA; $3.20 for 200g)
• Cacao nibs and beans made from Sāmoan cocoa are available online from Samāori ($22 and $14.50 respectively for 200g).
• Woolworths macro also has 250g RA-certified organic cacao nibs for $7.50 but, at time of writing (16/11/24) they are marked as out of stock.

Chocolate cake mix

Baking from scratch can be a bit much this time of year! Fortunately, Woolworths has recently brought out a chocolate cake mix using RA-certified cocoa - $4.50 for a 450g box.

Vanilla

Child labour is a huge issue in the vanilla industry, especially in Madagascar (the source of most of the world’s vanilla). Some PakNSave and New World supermarkets sell Taylor and Colledge Fairtrade certified vanilla. Around $10 for 100mL.

Shellfish, prawns and salmon

The traditional Kiwi Christmas seems to focus on ham, lamb or turkey, but maybe this year you’re doing something a bit different and serving seafood? Perhaps mussels, or prawns on the BBQ, or baked salmon in place of the traditional roast? Seafood is, sadly, at very high risk of slave labour in its supply chains (even if it’s caught or produced in New Zealand), BUT we’ve found plenty of slave-free options :-)

Shellfish

Most shellfish is slave-free. Our research has found no evidence of any form of slavery or child labour in the New Zealand shellfish industry, with one sole exception. Farmed paua are fed on a feed that includes fishmeal and oil, both of which are commonly made from fish caught by forced labour. None of the New Zealand paua farms have replied to our queries so we cannot recommend any of them. However, most of the paua for sale is wild-caught, so this doesn’t limit your options much. Imported shellfish is more likely to have involved slave labour, however - read on for what to look for, or stick to shellfish from New Zealand.

Mussels

The only mussels likely to be for sale in New Zealand this Christmas are farmed New Zealand green-lipped mussels. These are all slave free and can be purchased with confidence regardless of brand. That goes for mussels in the shell and mussels in all stages of processing.

Oysters

The only fresh oysters likely to be for sale in New Zealand this Christmas are either farmed or wild-caught in New Zealand (although you can find imported ones tinned). All fresh oysters are slave free and can be purchased with confidence regardless of brand. That goes for oysters in the shell and in all stages of processing.

Scallops

Some of the scallops for sale in New Zealand this Christmas will be wild-caught New Zealand scallops. These will be clearly labelled as such and are definitely slave-free: you can buy them with confidence.

The majority of scallops sold in New Zealand are imported; most of them come from Peru. We are confident the Peruvian scallop industry is slave-free, although it is not technically free of child labour. 17-year-olds are allowed to work on Peruvian industrial fishing boats, which violates ILO regulations against child labour as they don’t permit such hazardous work for under-18s. However, we do not consider this a major violation and are happy to recommend Peruvian scallops.

Australian and US scallops are also slave-free; however, all other imported scallops should be avoided. The remaining major supply countries (including Japan and the UK) are all at high risk of slave labour in their scallop industries. We have contacted a number of companies supplying such scallops and none have reported seeking any kind of slave-free assurances from their suppliers.

Suitable scallops are widely available. We’ve seen them at the fish counter of New World, packaged under the George Town brand and online from Gourmet Seafood and Oceans North (although you’ll need to avoid the Chinese and Japanese ones from Oceans North) amongst others. Likely your local fish shop also sells them.

Prawns

Most prawns are farmed: they are a high-risk product as slavery is common in the production of feed for farmed prawns, on prawn farms and in the processing of prawns. Very few companies that we have contacted have been able to assure us they have a slave-free supply chain. At this stage we can only recommend the following:

For whole prawns (i.e. with their heads and shells intact) any Argentinian red prawns or wild-caught Australian prawns are slave free.

• wild-caught whole Australian prawns are sold under the Ocean Pearl brand in Woolworths supermarkets as well as sometimes from the fish counter.
• Solander sells Australian wild-caught whole banana, tiger and king prawns online.
• whole Argentinian prawns are available online at Tai Wah. We’ve also sometimes seen them at supermarket fish counters, where they can also be labelled ‘red prawns’ or ‘Argentinian red shrimp. They’re fairly easy to recognise as they’re the only prawns that are quite pink when raw.

For processed prawns, the only brand we know of that is checking for forced labour throughout its supply chain is Kingfisher. Kingfisher prawns are sold in PakNSave and New World. Their range includes both raw and cooked prawns and shrimp, all prepeeled, and prawn cutlets.

Salmon

Whilst the tinned salmon you find in New Zealand supermarkets is typically wild caught, the fresh, frozen or smoked salmon you’ll be serving at Christmas will have been farmed, most likely in New Zealand or Australia. Such farms are at extremely low risk of child or slave labour due to our strong labour laws. However, sadly that doesn’t mean all farmed salmon is slave free. The salmon is fed on a feed that includes both fishmeal and fish oil, both of which are commonly made from fish caught by forced labour. Farmed salmon should only be purchased if the farm ensures their feed has a slave-free supply chain.

Fortunately, all New Zealand salmon farms are now using slave-free feed. We don’t have any concerns that slavery could be being used on the farms themselves, so that means that we are confident all New Zealand farmed salmon is slave free. In addition we are confident that products from Huon (an Australian company whose products you see here from time to time) are also slave-free.

For branded products, look for the logos of Southern Ocean, Regal, Ora King, Huon, Regal, Sanford, High Country Salmon, Mt. Cook Alpine Salmon, Aoraki or Akaroa or for clear ‘product of New Zealand’ labelling.

For unbranded products (e.g. sushi from a local shop, or fresh salmon from the fish counter in your supermarket), ask the retailer if they’re using New Zealand salmon - they likely are, in which case you can buy in confidence.

Other fish

If you’re interested in serving other fish species, we have a recommendations list here.

Happy Christmas!