Frequently Asked Questions

Organic and eco-friendly are synonymous. They usually refer to products made from ingredients grown without chemical treatments. Actually, organic farming is a mode of production and processing that meets very strict criteria in terms of respect for the environment, animal welfare and respect for biodiversity.

To meet these criteria, organic products must not contain ingredients grown with synthetic chemicals or GMOs, synthetic colourants, flavours or flavour enhancers. All our Grand Granola blends are certified organic by Ecocert Canada in the 70 to 95% organic ingredients category.

Organic ingredients in our products are marked with an asterisk in the ingredients list. To learn more.

The keto diet, often used in a weight loss context, is a low carbohydrate, high fat diet. Depending on the study, the carbohydrate content can vary between 20 and 50 g per day. Several foods can be considered for this diet, including nuts and almonds. The certification regulations state that our Nutbrown granolas are eligible for a 30g serving, since they have less than 8g net carbs for that specific serving.

Some of our products are vegan, which means that they are made without any ingredients from the animal kingdom. In the Grand Granola range, we have the Essential. This granola is sweetened with maple syrup and organic cane sugar. Other flavours are sweetened with honey and so are not considered vegan.

In the NUTBROWN range, our gluten-free granola, four flavours are vegan: Aphrodisiac, Vitality, Tonic and Zen. To be certain of your choice, you can check the ingredient lists on the back of the products or online.

The Nutbrown range is granola without grains: that is to say, it does not contain oats, wheat, barley, or rye. These typical granola ingredients are replaced by seeds (sunflower, linseed, and sesame seeds) and nuts (almonds and cashews). We were interested in offering different and tasty granolas which would also be suitable for the paleo type diet. Nutbrown granola is also certified gluten free and 4 of the 6 products are vegan! You can find all our granola blends without grains here.

The Paleolithic or “paleo” is a diet based on the ancient dietary lifestyle of the Paleolithic era (Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo sapiens) when humans were hunter-gatherers. In this diet, products from agriculture and the agri-food industry such as cereals, legumes, some vegetable oils, and dairy products are avoided, as paleo enthusiasts consider them harmful. Paleos will favor the consumption of lean meats (game, poultry, ruminants and other grass-eating animals), fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and berries. Our Nutbrown range of grain free granola is compatible with the Paleolithic diet because it does not contain any grains.

La Fourmi granolas are made in Montreal. Our small factory is located in a century-old building, rich in history, near the Lachine Canal. Our goal is to maximize the use of organic and local (from Quebec), fair trade and natural ingredients. That’s why the vast majority of the ingredients we use in our recipes are sourced locally: oats, barley, rye, spelt flour, honey, maple syrup, cranberries, etc. We import some ingredients which are not widely grown in Quebec or which cannot be grown in Quebec at all, such as almonds.

Our Grand Granola blends are certified organic. By regulation, none of our ingredients have been treated with glyphosate (whether organic or not). What is also important to know is that glyphosate is an herbicide used mainly on GMO crops. Our NUTBROWN range of cereal-free granola and the ingredients in our Grand Granola range are all certified non-GMO. We do our best to limit the likelihood of glyphosate being present in our products.

Our Grand Granola range is sweetened with honey or maple syrup and organic cane sugar, which provides our products with a crispy and caramelized texture while making them generally less sweet than industrially produced granola. The NUTBROWN granola range contains no refined sugars, because it is sweetened with coconut sugar. Coconut sugar has a lower glycemic index than white sugar. The result is a caramelized and slightly less sweet taste than our Grand Granola range.

We use salt in some of our products. It gives a nice balance in the flavours of our granolas. It is indeed a natural flavour enhancer that also, surprisingly, brings out a sweet taste. There is some in our sweet-and-salty Zen blend in the Grand Granola range. There is also some in the NUTBROWN gluten free range where it softly enhances the taste of nuts. There is also a very light touch of salt in the tamari sauce used in some of our other granola varieties, but we don’t use any at all in our Essential flavour, which is flavoured with maple syrup and Thompson raisins.