Organic, Packaging-Free Naked Foods Store Open in Bondi

A health food shop where you can buy exact quantities of everything you need? #cleaneating never looked so smart.

Jessica Surman
Published on July 23, 2014

Grocery nerds, listen closely. Naked Foods — an organic, packaging-free bulk health food store — has opened on the Bondi end of Oxford Street, and there's hardly an unusual flour or up-and-coming superfood that Brazilian owner Caique Ponzoni doesn't stock.

In a stripped-back, concrete-floored space lined with rows of white tubs filled with every type of lentil, nut, spice, grain and dried fruit the I Quit Sugar cookbook could ever call for, Caique and store manager Dolores Romero welcome a range of customers, from the older regulars who have known them since they started doing market stalls six years ago to the assertive, very Bondi 12-year-old he tells me came in one night after her yoga class to do her bulk shopping.

Naked Foods' basic philosophy is to be organic, sustainable and waste-free. Bring your own containers or use the brown paper bags supplied around the shop and buy as much (or as little) as you want. He means that, too — you can get one walnut, or 12 kilos of flour. Gone are the days of pantries deep with hardly touched jars and bags of obscure ingredients you needed for that one recipe, that one time, two years ago.

"Price is key as well," Caique tells me. "That's the difference between packaged stuff and an organic health shop. It'll always end up cheaper buying here, because you're always going to get what you need."

At the front of the shop, Dolores churns out fresh nut butter. Behind her is a sign listing a different nut for each day of the week; the day I'm there she feeds enormous macadamias in, and a creamy, pale yellow, thick butter oozes out. Other products of note include the very aesthetically pleasing baby pink Himalayan crystal salt; chocolate coated nuts, banana and ginger (in dark and milk varieties); flour from the ancient grain khorasan (apparently known for its nutty flavour); and the super hard-to-find 'super superfood' bee pollen (for $79.95 a kilo, no less).

Whether you're a proponent or not, there's no denying clean eating (or #cleaneating, as more than 9 million mentions on Instagram have it) is the latest food trend, though Caique might baulk at that term. "It's just a lifestyle, that's the right word. It's just normal. Shop in bulk, eat a lot of greens and raw food. That's the way we lived in Brazil."

The organic, sustainable philosophy extends to other products as well. You can do away with your Head and Shoulders and expensive moisturisers. Caique sells organic shampoo and conditioner and assures me coconut oil is better than any high-end moisturiser or aftershave. His skin looks pretty damn soft. I think he's probably on to something.

Naked Foods is at Shop 7, 310 Oxford Street, Bondi Junction and online. Its opening hours are 9am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday, and 10am to 5pm on Sundays.

Published on July 23, 2014 by Jessica Surman