Facts About ERG! Bars

ERG Foods was founded in 2012 by Dennis & Katy Bean-Larson in Traverse City, Michigan a few months after Dennis made a sticky mess of fruit, nuts, honey and rolled oats at home for his own use. Soon after they rented a 10x10 space in this shared kitchen. We made a lot of bars in this little cramped space!

Production

ERG Foods now has its own 1,500 sq ft production facility. ERG Foods LLC has been inspected and is licensed by the Michigan Department of Agriculture as a Wholesale Food Manufacturer. ERG Foods does not use a co-packer, products are entirely made & packaged here and all recipes are proprietary. ERG Foods is committed to Fair Labor Practices and to local production.

 

Green Facility

 Our facility practices a zero-waste policy. The manufacturing process is proprietary, extremely efficient and has practically no ingredient waste. All packaging, label backing, and paper waste is recycled.

 Processing

 ERG! Bars are not cooked or baked, they are raw, cold-pressed and minimally-processed . We process only “whole ingredients” and no fractionated ingredients are used. ERG! Bars contain no artificial colors, artificial flavorings, and no corn syrup. ERG! Bars are dairy-free, soy-free, rice-free, gluten-free, and non-GMO.

 

Stability

 ERG! Bars have been lab tested & are extremely shelf-stable. Each bar is stamped for a 12 month hold date to ensure fresh product for consumers. We make and ship fresh product daily.

 

Organic

We don't consider ERG! Bars as “organic”, but we use as many organic ingredients as we can. Our apples, rolled oats, ginger, cocoa, and cocoa nibs are organic. 

  

Gluten-Free

People who have Celiac Disease are physically allergic to gluten, and may have a wide range of sensitivity.

 

The US FDA says that if a product is inherently gluten-free, it may be labeled "gluten-free". Our facility has never had another food product present and we consider it to be gluten-free. Testing by University of Nebraska’s Allergen Research Center classifies the gluten in ERG! as “non-detectable” Our facility does not contain any wheat or gluten products, but If you are highly sensitive please use caution.

  

NON-GMO

 We support the NON-GMO Project and ideals. We use many raw ingredients such as cashews rather than roasted. Almonds, cashews, pecans are non-GMO, fruits are non-GMO. Peanut growers are being researching GMO to add Vit A, but are not approved at this time. ERG! Bars are not currently third-party-verified Non-GMO, because our bars all contain honey. At this time honey is not certifiable as non-GMO … it is impossible to control where bees travel.

Allergens

While we make every manufacturing and storage effort to eliminate peanuts from any of our other flavors, peanuts are stored in our facility. Similarly every effort is taken to isolate other ingredients such as cinnamon from other flavors.

Warnings

Certain flavors may contain shell or pit particles, please consult individual back labels for this information.

Irradiated Spices.

Our spices are non-irradiated.

Here's an ERG! Bar from October 2011, maybe bar #50 !!

 

 Feel free to ask about our ingredients or processing anytime. You can email us at matt@erg-bar.com