Do you read the ingredient labels carefully? Are you curious about the methods of production and processing?
At Harmonica, this is at the core of what we do. We’ve made it our mission to create products without artificial additives—no stabilizers, no preservatives, no flavorings, no emulsifiers, no colorants, and none of the other ingredients you wouldn’t have in your kitchen. We aim to make food using only ingredients everyone recognizes—milk, seeds, grains, vegetables, nuts… Simple and honest.
Of course, there are additives that are technologically necessary and without which certain products simply cannot be made. You can’t make wafers, breadsticks, or cookies without leavening agents like baking soda or baking powder. Nor can you produce syrups without citric acid. But that’s as far as it goes.
Why Does This Matter?
Because many additives, even when they seem harmless, can have serious consequences for our health. The food industry is highly innovative, constantly finding new “enhancers” and “improvers” to solve production and retail challenges. However, growing research suggests that using additives like monosodium glutamate (E621) or sulfur dioxide (E220) is not entirely innocent or safe. The list of controversial additives is, to say the least, long. For example, most preservatives are deemed safe in minimal quantities, but due to the demands of modern retail for extended shelf life and “guaranteed” quality, these substances are used in thousands of products. It’s hard to find ketchup, mayonnaise, juices, sweets, marinades, or sauces without potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate—and they’re often used together, just to be “extra sure.”
From the very beginning, we established a rule for making new Harmonica products: “If we can’t make it without additives, we don’t make it.” We’ve stood by that decision to this day. That’s why you’ll never find processed cheese or ham with the Harmonica label—these products simply can’t be made without phosphates. Yes, making products without additives is harder—sometimes it means our boza might separate, or our wafers might go stale at the end of their shelf life if not stored properly. Our cookies are more crumbly because we don’t use flour treatment agents like sodium metabisulfite. And although our cookies are made with real butter, they don’t have that overwhelming aroma found in others that use artificial flavorings instead of real butter. But we believe it’s just as important to you that food remains real—food, not chemicals. Your trust reassures us that this is the right path.
What Does „Additive-Free“ Mean for Harmonica?
Our lemonade contains only water, lemon, and sugar. Most lemonades on the shelf have 6 to 8 ingredients, many of which you wouldn’t recognize. We don’t use additives like soy or sunflower lecithin, which would make production easier and are the reason many manufacturers rely on them—to save time, reduce costs, and increase profits. Instead, we use natural preservatives like sugar and salt, or probiotic cultures in products like our hummus. Sure, this means that the hummus might taste a bit more sour near the end of its shelf life if stored carelessly, but you can always choose one with potassium sorbate instead.
„Additive-free“ means we only use the highest quality organic grains—emmer wheat, rye, regular wheat, and more—for our wafers, breadsticks, cookies, and filo pastry. There are, of course, shortcuts—modern technologies provide countless flour treatment agents that allow you to ensure consistency even with the lowest quality grain fit only for animal feed. These „improvers“ guarantee smooth production, eliminating fluctuations due to temperature, humidity, or even human error, ensuring constant high results and reliable profits. But at what cost?
„Additive-free“ also means no unnatural or atypical ingredients in our products. That’s why our lutenitsa has no potato puree, our dairy products contain no powdered milk or, heaven forbid, palm oil. Our rosehip jam contains no apples and isn’t thickened with pectin to cut costs. Our Turkish delight is made with sugar, just like in the old days before anyone had heard of high-fructose corn syrup. Many of our products, such as our wafers, chocolate-covered cereals, Smiles, granola, and Turkish delight, are based on specially developed recipes and have no true market equivalents. You won’t find anything quite like them.
„Additive-free“ means all our raw materials come from organic agriculture. This means no artificial fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, or pesticides—not only are they banned, but both we and our farmers are under continuous scrutiny. If traces of such „helpers“ were to be found, we’d lose the right to label our products as „organic.“ This is our way, and we take pride in this choice. We’re grateful to all the farmers, partners, and like-minded people who share this understanding with us—and to our customers, of course.
The Choice Is Yours
Ultimately, the choice is yours. By choosing Harmonica, you’re choosing food made with honesty—honest to you and honest to nature. It’s made cleanly and responsibly. Food that hides nothing. And we’re thankful that more and more people understand and support the choices we make. Because they aren’t always easy ones.
Real food doesn’t need additives. It only needs trust—your trust.