My day job for the last 20 years has been in corporate social responsibility. Yes, I’ll excuse the blank and confused looks. It’s not a particularly simple one to explain. In fact, I’ve  often joked over the years that it would be a lot easier to tell people I made sausages, as they would understand that.

My job involves spreading the gospel of responsible business – persuading companies to understand and exploit the fact that doing good is good for their business. Some get it, but really only as part of a marketing strategy designed to play to the growing desire of consumers to purchase from companies that they believe are responsible. Some simply don’t get it at all and continue to pursue profitability above all else, regardless of the impact their operations might have on the environment, on society or even on their own employees (I could name names, but I won’t – in the interests of keeping my day job). There is a small, but growing group of companies that really do get it however and understand that being responsible isn’t just about how they spend their profits, but how they run their company to make those profits in the first place.

One such company is, aptly named, The Good Little Company. Based right here in County Down Northern Ireland, the Good Little Company is run by local businessman Denis Lyn, a straight talking, no nonsense guy who wanted “to make sausages that taste good and do good”.  We have a friend in common – one who used to be my boss and who now works with Denis to help him with the charitable side of the business, which is currently supporting two African partner charities – the Mulanje Mission Hospital in Malawi and Ripple Africa. We met for lunch recently and when he heard about my food blog, he asked me to review some of the Good Little Company products. I gladly agreed and shortly thereafter received a number of packs of the 6 Great Pork Sausages and the 12 Good Little Sausages.

I’d have to admit to already being a convert to this brand before receiving the samples. Everything about these products and the company that makes them is good. What’s not to love? They taste great, they’re made with outdoor bred pork, are gluten free and have reduced fat and on top of all the food-related reasons to love them, the company is dedicating 50% of the profits from all packs to help fight poverty in Africa AND sustainability is a key part of its ethos. That’s just about every box ticked in my book!

The packaging is designed to appeal to younger customers and those of us with children know just how powerful pester-power can be. Really though, I think it’s good that there is a deliberate attempt to attract a younger audience and educate them through the packaging and also the website. You’ll find it at www.goodlittlecompany.com and it’s worth a visit if you want to find out more for yourself.

I’ve sampled both types of sausage so far, making Toad in the Hole with the 6 large pork sausages, which went down a treat with my two teenage sons and brought them back to their childhood for a few minutes at least. The 12 Good Little Sausages were grilled today to add to a spicy tomato pasta sauce for the same two sons and I can report that they (the sausages!) didn’t release a gread deal of fat, didn’t split and tasted delicious (I nicked one as I was adding them to the sauce).

These are premium sausages and they are premium priced too, but well within the premium price band and you can often find them on a 2 for £5 offer at the large supermarkets. With 87% outdoor bred pork, these are probably about as healthy as sausages get and they’re fairly low on E numbers too, with no artifical colours or added fat. I’d recommend you give them a try, particularly if you give a toss about spending your money on products that do some good. These do and you can help the company reach it’s target of £1m support for African charities – it’s currently at over £600k and counting.