Chocolate
Chocolate
Because Easter is another holiday that permits us to eat chocolate without guilt
Warning Warning Warning
Ferrero U.S.A is voluntarily recalling its Kinder® Happy Moments Chocolate Assortment and Kinder® Mix Chocolate Treats basket due to possible contamination with Salmonella Typhimurium. Ferrero made its announcement April 7 2022
. There have been no known illnesses in the US. However, in Europe, over 100 cases of illness, especially in children, have been reported.Check that you don’t have these chocolates in store for Easter weekend. If you do, you can contact the Ferrero customer service line Monday - Friday 9am-6pm EST at 1-800-688-3552 or via their website
for product refund.If you are in Canada, there was an expansion on the recalled products on April 11
. The full list can be found on Health Canada.
Unfair Labor Practices
Easter means that it is time to remind you that not all chocolate is equal as much of the cacao is grown and harvested using child labor
. Many chocolate companies use chocolate that is produced under these conditions. A recent expose by Channel 4 (UK) Dispatches showed children as young than 10 years old working involuntarily in the cacao plantations in Ghana, and farmers earning less that ￡2 per day for the cacao crop. Neither the farmers or the farmworkers have ever eaten the chocolate that results from their cash crop.This cacao went on to produce the chocolate used in Cadbury Creme Egg® and Dairy Milk® bars.
Oh no! That’s my favorite chocolate at Easter, right there. I grew up near the Cadbury factory in Bournville and I can remember days with the wind in the right direction when I smelled chocolate on the way to school. Friends who parents worked at the factory would bring seconds of Creme Eggs to school to share as a treat. Even though I now find them terribly sweet, I still enjoy a few at Easter and now I find out that the cacao grown for them is made using child labor. Creme Eggs now leave a bad taste in my mouth.
Of course, Mondelēz International (which now owns Cadburys) released a statement
speaking out against child labor and is working through its Cocoa Life program to improve sustainability, pay farmers a living wage, and end child labor.Part of the problem is given the quantity of chocolate used by Nestle, Mondelēz International, Kraft, etc., is that the chocolate is obtained through distributors who buy fermented cacao beans which was gathered from many farmers. It is quite likely that the larger companies don’t even know who their farmers are even though they are working to improve this. For example, Cocoa Life is Mondelēz International sustainability program and its purpose is to work with cacao farmers and their communities to empower them and to end child labor.
And yet Channel 4 Dispatches visited Cocoa Life farmers who were apparently empowered by exploiting children.
Mondelēz International wants to know who these farmers were. I fear that finding out which farmer is using children will cause their removal from Cocoa Life and thereby, either stop their livelihood or move problem on to another chocolate manufacture.
In addition, to farmer and farm worker exploitation, cacao farming is associated with deforestation and the heavy use of agrochemicals to manage the crop.
Chocolate Scorecard
There isn’t an easy solution for a multinational multi-million market like chocolate. A first step is the Chocolate Score Card, which released its 2022 listing
. Check it out and consider buy chocolate from the firms that do a great job by paying a living income to their farmers, ensuring that there is no child labor, and preserving forests. The companies that are supporting farmers and the environment are becoming more mainstream, even if not as cheap as the large brands.We also need to do our part and accept that we must pay more for chocolate as one of the problems is that we expect chocolate to be a cheap treat. By the time any profit reaches cocoa farmers there is very little money left.
Luxury
One of my favorite luxury chocolate brands is To’ak
which produces single origin single year chocolate from the rainforest in Ecuador. Eating To’ak chocolate is an amazing experience and reminds me that chocolate once was and still must be a sacred and precious food.If you buy some luxury chocolates, perhaps enjoy them by doing a taste test
to find out what flavors are there and to compare them with each other.You can also read about the origin of chocolate
which is still being questioned today.My Other writing on Chocolate
Cheap labor and cheap chocolate
Racism in the Food System
The fact that farmers and children in Africa and South America is also caused by racism in the food system. Black, Hispanic, Asian and Indigenous farmers and farmworkers in the US also experience exploitation. Our national food system is built on their labor with little reward. Many farmers and farmworkers are food insecure.
To learn more about how white supremacy affects the food system, I am participating in the FSNE 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge. This will be my sixth of participating and every year my knowledge expands.
I write about the intersection of food science and food systems with an emphasis on food safety, food justice and resilience. I am concerned that climate disasters and changing weather patterns are affecting our ability to eat healthy nutritious food.
I run a food safety consultancy, Food Safety Mid Atlantic, which I started in 2018 to support small and mid sized food businesses with food safety and product development. I support clients to develop a robust food safety program and to scale up their businesses while allowing them to maintain integrity with their values.
My primary goal is to support my clients so they make food at cost that is safe, tasty and compliant with federal, state, and local regulations.
If you are interested in learning more about my consulting services, please schedule a free call.
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