A pallet of sweet smelling, vanilla infused hand sanitizers made by Heilala Vanilla in New Zealand, were donated to Vaiola Hospital today, 27 May, to assist in keeping Tonga safe from CoViD-19.

The company shipped 2,000 units of the 60ml hand sanitizers from New Zealand to Tongatapu, with units shipped to ‘Eua and Vava’u hospitals and communities last week.

The sanitizers were handed over by New Zealand High Commissioner, HE Tiffany Babington, to the Minister for Health, Hon Dr ‘Amelia Tu’ipulotu today.

The High Commissioner and the Minister acknowledged Heilala Vanilla for the role it is playing to help Tonga with its preparedness for CoViD-19.

Heilala Vanilla co-founder, Jennifer Boggiss, who was unable to travel to Tonga to personally present the products, said they decided to make sanitizers after discovering there was a shortage when trying to source them in New Zealand for their staff.

Following that, they found that the market was flooded by inferior sanitizers.

“Then we were faced with the level four lockdown and still wanted to be in a position to assist our Tongan community and during this time we discovered that there were similar common ingredients in vanilla extract as sanitizer—ethanol and glycerin.”

“We knew we wanted our product to be of the highest quality and have used ‘Ethanol’ which is superior to isopropyl and same food grade as we use in our vanilla extracts which bakers around the world have come to know and love.” 

“We moved quickly, taking advantage of our production capabilities to produce a commercial grade sanitizer. Initially our priority was getting [the] product to Tonga.”

One this first shipment has been received then further shipments can be planned as required, she added.

Hand sanitizer

The hand sanitizer is a sweet smelling, vanilla infused sanitizer with an alcohol percentage of 70%.

Jennifer said the alcohol level of 70% is in the approved range recommended by WHO, CDC (US) and MPI (NZ), to be effective and proven to kill 99.9% of germs.

The sanitizer can be sprayed on surfaces, directly onto hands or door handles, tap handles or other surfaces and common touch points.

Heilala Vanilla [2] makes products such as vanilla extract from Tongan grown vanilla, which are sold to consumers around the world. The company supports various projects and communities in Tonga.