Don’t do crappy chocolate!
Home » Blog » Sarah Heeringa » Don’t do crappy chocolate!A cooking oil that is driving the destruction of the rainforests, displacing native people and threatening the survival of the orangutan is present in Cadbury's new chocolate recipe. So say the choco-lovers at Choco lovers Unite
Front image: Stu Spivack
Palm oil—blamed for a tree-felling rampage in Southeast Asia—is present or suspected in chocolates, soap products and margarines. Apparently it's also present in margarine brand Flora, KitKat and Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate, as well as Dove soap, Comfort fabric conditioner and Persil washing powder.
The United Nations Environment Programme believes palm oil is the major driver of deforestation in Borneo and Sumatra. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest are cleared to make way for plantations from which 90 per cent of wildlife disappear, including the orangutan, which is fighting a losing battle against extinction. Orangutan numbers have dwindled by 90 percent since 1900, with the rate of loss accelerating in recent decades. Cadbury insists that their Palm Oil is sustainable. Do not be fooled. Cadbury is a paid-up member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, but this means nothing, say the critics. The Roundtable itself admits that it is only able to certify 4 percent of palm oil production as sustainable. About 85 per cent of the global supply comes from Borneo and Sumatra, where corruption is rife and where incursions into the forests are enforced by gun-toting security guards. If present rates of logging continue, the UN Environment Programme estimates that 98 per cent of forests in Indonesia may be destroyed by 2020.
It is believed that Cadbury now use the oil to bind and bulk out chocolate as a cheaper partial substitute for cocoa butter.
Criticisms from outraged consumers:
- a 20 percent downsize from 250g to 200g
- a 5 percent drop in cocoa solids from 26% to 21%
- the inclusion of nasty vegetable fat as a filler
- a downgrade of everything but the price
What you can do:
Stand up for good chocolate! Join the petition.
Visit your local TradeAid store and buy fair trade organic chocolate instead.
Mon July 06, 2009 @ 08:40 PM
