Granola: good for you and the planet

"What are we going to do with vegetable skins from the icy poles?".

This was a question that was eating at us (no apologies for the pun) when we started making our Veggie Icy Poles. It was over a bowl of our homemade granola that Jess had a great idea - dehydrate the veg skins and add it to the granola! So we gave it a go, and guess what, you can't even taste it!

Expect to see this product range available in winter 2025.

And of course, it's made from clean ingredients only and packed with nuts and seeds.

In the meantime, give the Veggie Icy Poles a go

Reducing Food Waste

We are committed to reducing food waste through our range of products.

Our Veg Blocks have close to zero food waste. We include all stems, leaves and seeds. Only the pumpkin stems and rhubarb leaves (given they're poisonous!) are discarded. This also has the added benefit of increasing the diversity of nutrients in your diet. Great for your overall health, and gut health.

The veggie icy poles have been developed with flavour as a priority, therefore, we’ve had to find a solution for the vegetable peel. We will be launching granola later in 2025, that will include the veg waste from the icy poles! This is still in product development phase, but provides a circular solution to our vegetable use.

Eco Friendly Packaging

We are committed to only using environmentally friendly
packaging.

The icy pole wrappers are home compostable! Either bury them
in your garden, or put them in the landfill bin for a relatively quick breakdown. Thanks to NatureFlex for an awesome product.

Veg Blocks use landfill biodegradable plastic packaging from a Melbourne company, Biogone. They’ve designed an awesome new technology that allows the plastic to break down 90% faster than conventional plastics (which typically takes hundreds of years to break down), and doesn't input microplastics into the environment.

Gut Health

Did you know that the larger the variety of veggies you eat, the healthier your gut microbiome!

Our Veg Blocks contain between 6 and 20 different veggies, helping you 'eat the rainbow' and increase your gut health.

Veggie Icy Poles are an easy way of eating half a serve of veg, while enjoying a refreshing treat. For kids and adults!

Cooking with Veg Blocks

The options are endless, but some of our favourite ways of using Veg Blocks:

  • Add to a curry either homemade or store-bought
  • Pasta sauce. Garlic, 1 tin tomatoes and 8 blocks. BOOM, done!
  • Smoothies of course 😁
  • Add to baking: cakes, muffins and pancakes
  • Chili con carne, shepherd's pie, lasagna.......the list goes on
Our catalogue of recipes is growing

Use Frozen or Defrosted?

We don’t add extra water to our Veg Blocks, so we’re only selling you pure veg! Along with the combination of vegetables, the Veg Blocks are naturally thick. This means they won't make your cooking watery.

Add the frozen blocks direct to your cooking, or defrost them in the microwave first (one block takes about 45 secs at 1100 watts). They will take longer to defrost when put directly in your cooking, but it saves effort when the food will be simmering for at least 15 minutes.

Maurice walking with his two boys in Pisa, Italy

5+ Foods Origin

As a husband and a father of two amazing little boys, I sprung into starting 5+ Foods in July 2024 from our spare room in Newport, Melbourne. After 11 years of various corporate and not-for-profit jobs, ranging from supply chain management roles in large corporations, to a running a start-up charity tackling food poverty, 5+ Foods is my chance to put everything I’ve learnt into practice (oh, and to also finally use my qualifications – a Bachelor of Food Tech and Nutrition, and a Certificate 3 in Commercial Cookery).

5+ Foods aims to help everyone eat their 5 serves of veg every day. Our first product line, the Veg Blocks, focuses on making it super easy to add more veg to your meals every day, even the days you really can't be bothered cooking!

As a company, we aim to be a social enterprise that can have positive impacts on issues around food waste & the environment, our general health, the local economy, and disadvantaged communities. This is our long-term plan, in the short-term, we’re keen to build a community of healthy eaters.

I hope you’re as excited as us for what the future holds! Thanks for reading.

---Maurice Di Rosso, Founder of 5+ Foods

Why choose 5+ Foods?
Check out the Veg Blocks rangeNeed some healthy meal inspiration? Our recipes should do the trick