0°C | Thursday November 13, 2025 
20 September 2023
By James Mullan
The Plant Food Company has opened its doors just next to Woolworths on Burlington St, Crows Nest. This comes after a similar business on the same site closed its doors last year, leaving a void in the market. The new store has a simple mantra “healthy for you, good to the environment and respectful of both human and other animals rights.”
Leslie Goldman is the founder of The Plant Food Company and has been a local for more than 20 years. After originally starting the business online, he decided it was time to open up a shopfront after being a regular at the previous store and to provide locals with the option to shop waste free. He summarises the company as “At the vanguard of a movement to change the way we think about, and the way we produce and eat food. We believe that food can only be truly good if it’s good for you, if it’s good for the planet and good for the other animals.”
It’s not only about providing ethically sourced products, but also minimising the environmental impacts in from production to sale. “You may be more than a little surprised to know that when you buy food from the supermarket often, if you add up the value of the packaging, the cost of transporting the packet and the marketing fees is far more than the cost of the food inside! And all that packaging and transporting ends up in landfill or as CO2 emissions.” This also helps to reduce the overall price of products with Goldman adding “Instead of people’s food dollar going into branding or packaging, it goes into the quality of the products and our prices are comparable to the major super markets.”
What really stands out is the range that is on offer, as organic or ethically sourced food can often have the reputation of limiting one’s choice. The vast majority of their offerings are sourced from Australia including your building block ingredients including quinoa, flour, yeast, nuts, sugars, pastas and rice.
On the sweeter side there is rocky road, licorice, lollies, chocolates or on the healthier side dried fruits like bananas, papaya, cranberries or just about any fried fruit you could think of. The nuts are plenty too as well as snacks like rice crackers, trail mix and chips.
Moving to the non solids their peanut butter has proved to be very popular as well as their soy sauce, agave, sunflower oil, vinegars, honey, tahini and even molasses. Of course, all organic.
Goldman’s pointed out the insecticide free almonds, their gluten free range, unique pastas, organic rices as just some of the foods that are quite unique to his store. The range or food is hard to cover in just one article, so you’ll just have to pop in soon.
Also available are vegan, plant based, low toxin, biodegradable cleaning products for all needs, including lemon myrtle laundry liquid, lime disinfectant, fabric conditioners and much more. They also cater for personal care products like body soaps, shampoos and conditioners. Goldman said “There’s a growing concern around the community around the amount of chemicals particularly in personal care products.” also highlighting the potential health problems associated with harmful chemicals on bodies. They source all of these products from a manufacturer in Perth.
Customers are also encouraged to BYO packaging, bottles and bags to help eliminate waste. All products are self service meaning customers are not locked into predetermined amounts, plus pretty much everything is sold by weight.
Goldman had one final message for the community “If you are looking to change the world one delicious bite at a time and the best value bulk organic food PLUS low toxin, human friendly and eco friendly cleaning products, all sourced as locally as we are able to – shop with us!”