Bio Panda bread - good for health and for the environment

A new brand of organic bread has been launched in Belgium which will also help protect the environment via a link up with the Belgium arm of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Bio Panda, as the multigrain bread is called, will be available at independent bakeries throughout Belgium, and will use ingredients supplied by Zeelandia, a long-term partner of the WWF in Belgium. For each loaf bought, €0.05 will be donated to the EU's Natura 2000 project.

Bio Panda is 100 per cent organic, and all the bakeries producing the bread will be monitored by BLIK, an organic certification group. The round bread will be made to resemble the panda, the symbol of the WWF, and will carry both the WWF and Biogarantie logos.

The WWF has long been an advocate of organic food and agriculture, which does not use synthetic fertilisers, pesticides, colourings or preservatives. This, it claims, is not only better for human health but also for the Earth's flora and fauna.

The Natura 2000 project which will benefit from the sale of Bio Panda bread is a Europe-wide project designed to protect the region's natural habitats and the plant and animal life which lives there. Each EU Member State is obliged to designate areas which are of vital importance in terms of the species which live there and ensure that measures are in place to protect them.

Zeelandia and the WWF have worked together for more than 10 years. The first Panda bread was launched in 1989, again with the equivalent of €0.05 form each loaf sold being donated to the WWF. In total, the WWF in Belgium has benefited from more than €1 million over the 10 year period.