cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/42772420
Tony’s Chocolonely is a Dutch chocolate manufacturer and seller. Created in 2005, the company’s market share in the Netherlands was 18 percent in 2018.
In 2022, the Thomson Reuters Foundation awarded Tony’s Chocolonely the Stop Slavery Award in the category “Goods and Services Companies”. This award recognizes companies and organizations who have set a high standard for eradicating slavery, illegal child labor, and human trafficking from their supply chains.
Tony’s Chocolonely was ranked second on the 2023 Chocolate Scorecard, which rates chocolate companies according to their human rights and environmental credentials: traceability and transparency, living income for cocoa farmers, child labour (absence of), deforestation & climate, agroforestry, and agrochemical management.
It’s a tad on the expensive side, but it is SO GOOD. I recommend the “Romige hazelnoot crunch” (lit. Creamy hazelnut crunch, dunno if that’s the actual intl name though).
Honestly I think that’s just what chocolate actually costs when it’s not full of filler. I made the decision to just not buy American chocolate years ago and I had a Hershey’s bar at Halloween because someone brought in a bag of them to my work and holy shit it was bad, I legit couldn’t finish the tiny bar. It tasted like plastic or something and the texture didn’t even resemble milk chocolate, it was chalky and crumbly. I don’t understand how things have gotten this bad, and how American consumers accept it. Why even buy shit that doesn’t even taste good just because it’s cheap? I’d rather go without than eat the shit Hershey’s chocolate. If tariffs mean I have to stick with American made chocolate (disregarding that you can’t grow cocoa in the US) I’ll probably just stop eating chocolate because American chocolate sucks ass.
Might want to find a different EU brand, Tony’s sweets aren’t just sweet from sugar. They’re really high in lead. :P
https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/lead-and-cadmium-in-dark-chocolate-a8480295550/
As someone in the industry, I will say this is an issue with all chocolate manufacturing and it’s getting worse. You should still avoid the brands in that list, but don’t assume your favorite brand will continue to stay safe.
Almost all cocoa sourced by the big and medium manufacturers is grown in Africa. Many countries there still use leaded gas, and lead/cadmium mining is likely a big contributor. Some of it may be naturally occurring in the soil.
But it seems like cocoa is especially good at wicking up pollutants and storing them in the fruit.
While I appreciate their response, I’d rather they implement a process safety management system. While cadmium and lead accumulate differently, lead accumulation can be fixed by covering the drying beans from lead dust, or moving them to areas where lead pollution isn’t present. Cadmium tends to accumulate in older plants, and is pulled up from the soil. Planting newer trees, or changing the soil composition could limit the amount of cadmium present before it ever enters the supply chain.
Even if it does enter the supply chain, they could blend hazardous beans with cleaner beans to at least reduce the amount of exposure to heavy metals (of which no amount is truly safe.) You also get routine exposure through toothpaste and (potentially) drinking water, among other things.
And they’re super delicious! Salted caramel is my favourite!