FAQs
To help answer your queries we’ve compiled a list of Frequently Asked Questions. If you’d like to know more you may like to read About Anathoth Farm or email us directly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Recycling & Repurposing
The best before date is stamped on the lid of every pot. Our jams, marmalades and fruit mince will last up to 2 years and our curds, pickles, relishes and chutneys up to 18 months.
For our pickles, relishes, chutneys and curd we use oxygen barrier labels which protect the ingredients inside. This provides a similar level of protection to glass. The oxygen barrier label limits oxygen movement through the sides and bottom of the plastic and keeps the product inside fresher for longer.
Our jams don’t require an oxygen barrier pot as the inclusion of sugar acts as a natural preservative which protects the colour and flavour of jam.
We always enjoy hearing from our customers. All you need to do is enter your details in our Customer Care Form and we’ll respond to you promptly.
Just like home-made jam, the fruit content in Anathoth Farm jams is 50% (with the exception of Blackcurrant Jam and Plum Jam, which both have 45%). Most commercial jams contain 40% fruit (which is the legal minimum) and concentrated fruit juices and purees are sometimes used as a low-cost way of boosting fruit percentage. But even using high levels of lower quality fruit doesn’t deliver great tasting jam. Anathoth Farm uses only whole fruit purchased from local growers and reputable fruit suppliers.
No, Anathoth Farm jams contain no preservatives or artificial colours or flavours. For our Anathoth Farm pickles, chutneys and relishes we use real spices like turmeric, chilli powder, mustard seeds, celery seeds and mustard flour to enhance the flavour of the real vegetables that we use.
We often declare 'spices' in our ingredients and don't detail all the specific spices. We do this for two reasons.
- Sometimes there are many and we don't always have enough space on the label
- It would give away our secrets for our great tasting products
But, if you contact us needing to know about a specific product we'll be happy to give you more information.
Most of our products are Gluten Free, however please double-check if you are sensitive or have a gluten allergy. We clearly state on the back of all products, and make it available within the PRODUCTS page on this website for your convenience. To learn more about gluten claims, we encourage you to have a read of this handy May Contain Gluten blog.
As we don’t add preservatives to our jams, it is sometimes possible for mould to grow after opening. We recommend that you store your jams in the fridge and always use a clean spoon or knife.
To reduce the risk of yeasts or mould growing, Anathoth Farm products are heated to over 100°C during processing and hot fill in a clean environment. The tamper evident foil seal is applied to the pot immediately after filling while the product is hot. If there is any visible yeast or mould growth when you open it, it's likely that the foil hasn't sealed perfectly onto the pot. Seal failure is a mechanical issue which may happen very occasionally. If it does happen to an Anathoth Farm product that you've purchased, please let us know and we’ll happily replace it for you. You can contact us here.
Stone fruits can often cause problems because the only way to remove 100% of the stones is to sieve them and that removes all the fruit texture. So the odd stone may slip through, just as it does when stone fruit jam is made in a home kitchen. For all our stone fruit jams we’ve put a warning on our labels, eg: “Despite our best efforts to remove all fruit stones, please take care as you could come across the odd fragment”.
With berries, due to their picking process, our berry suppliers can’t always completely eliminate plant matter from the fruit supplied to us. While it's rare, the odd berry thorn or twig may slip through because we're are unable to sift the jam. Although stalk complaints are rare, we take these matters very seriously and continually seek to reduce plant matter in our product.
Please rest assured that we have stringent controls in place for foreign matter; our company operates under a Food Safety Programme that is approved by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, we have invested in a metal detector, and our factory is inspected on a regular basis.
Citrus Fibre is used to help improve the consistency and set of our marmalade. Just like we add fruit pectin to some of our jams, we chose to use citrus fibre in our Breakfast Marmalade and Marmalade with Ginger. Just like fruit pectin, citrus fibre is a by-product of the orange fruit juice process. Once the juice is squeezed there is some fruit pulp left behind. The pulp is then dried and processed using mechanical means (ie drying and milling) to produce the citrus fibre. This process uses no chemicals - it is a physical process only. Citrus fibre contains 65-70% total fibre. The fibre also includes the pectin naturally present in the fruit.
Customers often ask us how grapefruit affects medication.
Grapefruit (along with some other fruits, such as Seville Orange) can interfere with the metabolism of medicine within our bodies. In most cases, eating grapefruit increases the level of medicine in the blood which can increase the risk of side effects or alter the effect the medicine has.
Anathoth Farm produces several preserves that include grapefruit or Seville Orange, both having similar characteristics:
The NZ Heart Foundation recommends for patients on statins that ‘grapefruit and grapefruit juice not to be eaten because grapefruit can affect the rate at which statins are processed by the liver, and too much of the drug may stay in your body’. They have some specific information on their website on ‘Statins’ which is a type of medication that may be prescribed by a doctor to help reduce cholesterol and/or reduce the risk of blood clots forming (therefore lowering the overall risk of heart attack and stroke). READ MORE about Statins
It is extremely important for all people who are prescribed medications to have a conversation with their doctor or pharmacist around the specific medication(s) they are taking and the foods/drinks that they should be avoiding. Grapefruit and grapefruit juice can affect some medication but not all.
An interesting article which provides another perspective can be found here: Listener (2011) Medication and Marmalade
To reiterate, we highly recommend that all people who are prescribed medications to have a conversation with their doctor or pharmacist around the specific medication(s) they are taking and the foods/drinks that they should be avoiding.
Raspberry Jam is New Zealand’s favourite jam flavour, but the New Zealand raspberry crop is much too small to meet the demands and specifications to keep up with our demand. So we source quality international raspberries from to make up the shortfall.
We continue to work with local growers to increase and improve New Zealand raspberry volumes so that in time we hope to offer an all New Zealand raspberry jam. Watch this space as we track the growth of the crop.
We make a total of 36 products (Jams, Curds, Marmalades, Chutneys, Pickles, Relishes, Fruit Mince and Pizza Sauces).
Anathoth means 'new beginnings' and we believe the correct pronunciation is “Ah-na-tot” (silent H's), but you can say it any way you like!
Anathoth Farm is made by Barker's of Geraldine, an experienced and well known condiment manufacturer operating from a corner of the original family farm, 8km from Geraldine, South Canterbury. In August 2015, Barker's was purchased by a French private company Andros. Michael Barker and several other long time local managers still own shares in the business which continues to make the same products on the same farm site with the same people.
