True Clean Label Introduction

True Clean Label is the philosophy behind Sunday Natural. From raw ingredients to production and packaging, all our work is guided by this philosophy. Read more to find out about the principles of this philosophy and the difference it makes to you as a customer.

Our Motivation: Truly Clean and Transparent

The untainted quality of food, food supplements, and tea is of paramount importance at a time when we are increasingly confronted by toxic contaminants in the environment, the scope of which is yet to be fully understood. Supplementing the diet is an exercise in balancing out deficiencies and supporting the body so that it can rise to the various challenges of modern life. To ensure that food supplements resolve nutritional problems rather than contribute to them, it is important that they meet the highest standards of quality and purity.

Attaining the highest possible purity of our products is not just a cornerstone of the company, but also the founding principle behind it. We started Sunday Natural in 2012 because we could not find in either Europe or the United States the truly high quality food supplements, superfoods, and teas that met our personal standards for quality and purity. Our goal has thus always been to raise the standards for quality and to produce formulas which we would gladly purchase for ourselves and recommend to friends and family.

3 principles encompass our demands for quality and purity as well as our promise to uphold these standards:
- Natural Source / Highest Purity
- Bioactive Premium
- True Clean Label

This segment is dedicated to our True Clean Label, which details our promise to seek and provide the highest possible purity with the greatest possible transparency.

Purity as the Pinnacle of all our Concepts and Processes

We have always strived for the highest possible purity starting from the cultivation of the raw ingredients right through to the packaging of the final product. We hold each of our products and every detail of their manufacture to this standard, including but not limited to:

- Searching the world for the best raw materials;
- Meticulously developing custom-made and ultra pure active ingredients;
- Producing water-based or edible ethanol-based extractions of premium plant materials that are completely free from solvents and chemical residues;
- Completely avoiding unnecessary additives and auxiliary agents;
- Transparently declaring all ingredients;
- Using ultra pure, vegan, as well as carrageenan- and PEG-free capsule shells;
- Storing finished products in toxin-free packaging and containers.

The following sections provide some insight into the diverse aspects of product purity and explain what this means on a practical level. What impurities are often contained in generic products? How can a customer best evaluate quality? What kind of information does a trustworthy producer readily share?

True Clean Label - Truly Pure, Truly Transparent

 Our True Clean Label entails 2 interrelated promises: to only include pure, uncontroversial ingredients and to fully disclose all ingredients even when we are not legally required to do so. Our "clean" label thus includes exclusively "clean" ingredients and furthermore names every single ingredient in the product. Generic products on the market may seem to have similarly clean labels, but there are a host of ingredients which are not legally required on labels and thus they may misleadingly imply that these non-declared substances are not present. Within the parameters of the law, a label may actually provide insufficient information about the composition and purity of the product.

For example, various auxiliary substances may not be listed on the label if they were already combined with the raw materials out of which the final product was made. Similarly, the origin as well as the exact extraction method of a product does not have to be disclosed. In response to this situation, we promise to disclose absolutely all ingredients in our products including (unavoidable) auxiliary substances and additives, and to describe major aspects of the origins of the products including production and extraction methods.

Our ideal of true purity and transparency is thus encapsulated in the phrase “True Clean Label”. This phrase expresses not only our commitment to a label full of "clean" ingredients, but also a "true" label that maintains full disclosure and has nothing to hide.

True Clean Label - Ultra Pure and Premium Ingredients

The purity of all products begins with the ingredients. For each of our ingredients, we scour the world for the best producers; visiting international trade fairs and farms, and sending hundreds of samples to the laboratory to test for the truly best quality. We do not rest until we have found a solution that wholly convinces us.

Unfortunately, we are not always immediately successful in our search. We have encountered situations in which we are unable to adopt a new product into our range because we were unable to find raw ingredients that fully satisfied our standards for quality and purity. We searched for years until we were able to find convincing ingredients for our high-dose vitamin C, our high-dose vitamin D capsules, our omega-3 oil, and not least out vitamin A and E supplements. Only after long searches combined with exclusive and custom-production agreements were we able to develop satisfactory solutions.

Though this method does not always guarantee quick return on investment, we remain steadfastly dedicated to our long-term goals and concepts.

True Clean Label - Principled Avoidance of Additives

A large percentage of foods, food supplements, and medicines today contain additives. Most additives do not contribute to the efficacy, efficiency, or nutritional value of the product, but rather are added to increase production or serve aesthetic purposes. Such additives often also do not legally need to be disclosed on the label.

One of the most important aspects of our company philosophy is the avoidance of additives wherever possible. This promise includes not only raw ingredients, but also ingredients found in our capsule shells.

In the best case scenario, these additives are simply unnecessary, but in other scenarios they may actually constitute substances that have health risks that are not yet fully understood. Since many additives are added in such a way that they must not be disclosed, they exist as "hidden additives" that the consumer may not know about. An additional component of this issue is the presence of nanoparticles, which in certain quantities likewise do not need to be declared even though there is the possibility that they carry risks for the body.

Rather than expose our customers to potential health risks, out of principle we avoid all controversial and unnecessary additives such as auxiliary and carrier substances, pressing and binding agents, preservatives, artificial colours and flavours, as well as emulsifiers. Moreover, we replace these substances, if additives are absolutely necessary for production, with natural and healthy alternatives. We gladly accept all challenges that arise from following this method to ensure the best and purest possible product.

True Clean Label - Production without Unnecessary Auxiliary Materials

Our focus on clean products extends to the production process itself. To save costs, many production facilities today are fully automated and produce capsules and tablets without manual intervention. In order to rapidly produce these finished products, a range of auxiliary materials such as anti-caking and binding agents may be used. These substances serve only to facilitate production, but are of no added benefit to the final product.

To avoid such auxiliary materials is to accept the challenge of redeveloping production methods. When making our products, we endeavor to work around auxiliary materials as much as possible and then ensure that only natural substances are used in production when such materials are absolutely necessary. Our products are made in ISO, GMP, and HACCP-certified facilities on semi-automatic machines according to the highest quality standards. While this process may result in longer development and production times, our final products are completely free from controversial additives and auxiliary materials.

True Clean Label - Independent Laboratory Tests

The quality of our products can be sensed, tasted, and even measured. Regular laboratory tests of both the raw ingredients as well as the final products not only guarantee their purity, but also their true make up and active ingredient content.

Thus, in addition to our full label disclosure and as a part of our True Clean Label philosophy, we have also started an unprecedented transparency programme. For the most important products in our range, we successively publish detailed and forgery-proof tests carried out by renowned, independent German laboratories. These tests demonstrate the purity and active ingredient content of our products. The expert knowledge of the laboratories and our quality producers also flows into our own production, allowing us to preserve nutrients that are sensitive to light, oxygen, and heat.

Consequently, we test specifically the raw materials as well as the final products for sensitive ingredients to ensure that the proper amount is compensated for during production so that the end product has exactly as much as is promised on the label.

Beyond the Label: A Responsible Approach to People and Nature

For us, "truly clean" does not only apply to the chemical aspect of the product, but also its ethical and ecological footprint. We therefore directly source our raw materials from sustainable farmers and producers wherever possible and with no middleman. We pay fair and appropriate prices, establish personal and long-term relationships, and visit the places of cultivation or production to evaluate conditions for ourselves. We always look for partners with similar ideals, who also value authentically natural products of the highest quality and purity.

We are especially proud to support the people behind small and family-owned farms who possess traditional and specialised expertise, especially in regards to tea production. In the realm of tea, we have established many exclusive partnerships in which teas are grown and produced for us according to our quality specifications. Moreover, all of our products with only a few vegetarian exceptions are completely plant-based and vegan. The origins of the raw ingredients as well as the corresponding production methods are transparently disclosed.

We have also blazed our own trail on the topic of packaging materials. A majority of our products are filled in amber glass bottles and are therefore almost completely recyclable as well as free from plasticisers, aluminium, and toxic glues in the lid. Many other products are available in 100% compostable zipper pouches. Our servers as well as the electricity for the whole company come from renewable energy. Because these aspects of ecological packaging matter to us, we disclose as much information about the packaging of specific products as possible.

Independent and Passionate

Our philosophy of authentically natural products of the highest quality and purity is inseparable from our passion for comprehensive well-being and health. We are able to avoid compromising our ideals in any way because we are an independent company. We are exclusively privately financed and self-run, meaning that we are not beholden to investor pressure or profit-driven business planning. As a result, we have built Sunday Natural to be a company that can realise our ideals and uncompromisingly pursue quality products.