When Noa Bakehouse decided to reduce their plastic use and wrap their bread in a more environmentally friendly way they had to go back to the 1950s to find a machine that could do it.

The need to wrap bread goes back to when loaves started to be sold sliced and so had to be wrapped to keep them fresh.

When Noa first began producing an everyday sliced tin loaf it was wrapped in plastic but owners Miles and Pippa Pettit felt that this was against the ethos of the Real Bread Campaign, of which they are members. This is a charity which has as its mission: ’to find and share ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet’.

Working with DEFA, Noa began looking into where they could find a wrapping that was compostable and biodegradable. The answer turned out to be simple: go back to doing it the way they did it in grandma’s day and use waxed paper. Anyone over the age of 50 will probably remember the days when all sliced bread was wrapped in this way.

The bigger problem turned out to be sourcing a machine that could handle waxed paper as such machines no longer exist.

Then they found a company in Lancashire that rebuilds original 1950s slicing and wrapping machines and five months later they have taken delivery of a machine which has the original cast iron frame and parts with some modern additions.

At 12 tons it proved to be ’quite an operation’ to get into the Noa bakery building.

It is capable of handling up to 1,000 loaves an hour.

Miles said: ’This is an investment in Noa’s future and in the environment and it was the right thing to do.

’What Noa has always done is look at the most sustainable ways of working.

’Plastic isn’t the future so we’ve gone back to what they did in the past.’

He went on to explain why they decided to introduce a range of everyday, affordable loaves.

He said: ’We wanted to give people a healthier alternative, without emulsifiers or preservatives; to support Laxey Glen Mill and the local farming community to build a sustainable industry, and to offer our team career opportunities that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to staying at our small size.

’In January this year we moved the cafe out of the bakehouse and into the old Market Hall.

’This has given the café the ability to do so much more and it’s given us the ability to really invest in bread and in the future of Noa.

’We still make the sourdough by hand in the same artisanal fashion but we have developed a new range the Arran, in line with the Real Bread Campaign.

’This is a 30% sourdough soft sliced loaf, made with no sugar, no additives, and no emulsifiers, using Laxey flour and Isle of Man Creamery butter, a healthier loaf at a competitive price.’