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Note there is a good site for checking your chocolate: https://www.asyousow.org/environmental-health/toxic-enforcement/toxic-chocolate#chocolate-tables https:/

by e40 3y ago

Note there is a good site for checking your chocolate: https://www.asyousow.org/environmental-health/toxic-enforcement/toxic-chocolate#chocolate-tables https://www.asyousow.org/environmental-health/toxic-enforcem... It's nice that Consumer Reports made OP free for non-subscribers.

SllX 3y ago
Thanks! The results were what I expected and depressing, but at least now I know.
- crazygringo 3y ago
  What were you expecting? I personally can't see any kind of pattern anywhere at all, except dark chocolate is (logically) higher. Also, one-time testing isn't going to reveal much. Since different manufacturers are constantly getting different batches of beans from different farms, wouldn't the heavy metal content in any chocolate bar be essentially random? E.g. Cadbury's might be low in April, high in May, and then medium in June.
  - Obscurity4340 3y ago
    Makes you wonder if there's any way to "synthesize" whatever it is that makes cacao make cacao or something to the effect of the way various opioids and flavors are already synthesized en masse, although obviously in the opioid case we're probably not gonna get around having to grow poppies forever.
    - kleton 3y ago
      Okra is vaguely related to cacao, and you can process the seeds to some sort of ersatz substance with similar flavor compounds, but it lacks the saturated fats with a melting point similar to human body temperature that makes chocolate interesting.
      - soperj 3y ago
        So just add bacon fat?
        Obscurity4340 3y ago
        > Shhhhhhh! — Nestlé/BigNesqwik
    - chongli 3y ago
      High quality chocolate has a ton of different flavours in it. It’s extremely complex. Just like coffee, tea, wine, beer, vanilla, spirits, cheese, mushrooms (and so on; basically any luxury food). We can’t synthesize what makes these things taste good because it isn’t just one compound, it’s thousands. Even something very basic you can make at home, such as caramel, can’t be synthesized. From a very simple precursor (white sugar aka sucrose) you apply heat and the result is thousands of complex molecules. This is why caramel tastes good (like an actual food) but plain white sugar tastes pretty bad (because it’s just an ingredient).
  - pbhjpbhj 3y ago
    Don't you fix these things by using the market, fine Cadbury an extra 5% pa of gross revenue if any bars are found with > N ug of any particular heavy metal. Tax all companies an extra X% if their products are in the bottom quintile for 2 consecutive years. Maybe don't fine them if they can show a person who eats their products at the 99% level, for a lifetime, would be below the level of toxicity -- the CEO can eat that much of the metal to demonstrate they're convinced that the toxicity figures are correct! In theory the chocolate producers will get a lower price unless they do what they can to reduce heavy metals. Of course the farmers get screwed in places where others have shipped their heavy-metal lawn waste ...
  - SllX 3y ago
    Some level of uniformity that the issue is about as universal as it sounds across brands based off the description in the article. It is, and that kind of sucks. I mentioned this to a friend earlier and he said something along the lines of “yeah I thought this was pretty well known” so… I didn’t get the memo anyway and I am a somewhat frequent consumer of very dark chocolate.
civilitty 3y ago
A bunch of organic chocolate products from Newmans Own, Trader Joes, and Whole Foods’ brand are the worst offenders. Well shit, am I supposed to make brownies using just cannabis? The alternatives are all crap Hersheys/Mars chocolates
- pbhjpbhj 3y ago
  Does cannabis concentrate heavy metals itself? I can't endorsed this source, but there are plenty of others https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-12-cannabis-heavy-metals-affect-consumer.html https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-12-cannabis-heavy-metals...
  - adrian_b 3y ago
    The hemp seeds, like most seeds, also concentrate lead and cadmium. The other parts of the plant have only low concentrations of metals. Nevertheless, when any plant part is burnt, the ashes concentrate all the metals from that plant part.
- aksss 3y ago
  Yeah it seemed that going out of way to source from most artisanal producer in exotic locations may correlate with higher levels? Not strictly true but seemed like a correlative trend in my quick pass through results. Maybe the guy growing cacao in the roadside ditch in the valley watershed needs some of that fair trade money, but soil quality may not be highest concern.
- waveBidder 3y ago
  Those … are all corporate knock-offs of co-ops. what did you expect?
  - civilitty 3y ago
    Better quality control?
  - sarchertech 3y ago
    Newmans Own isn’t a corporate knock off of a co-op. It’s corporation started by Paul Newman that donates all of its profits to charity.
flanbiscuit 3y ago
I like to buy from local independent chocolatiers and now I'll have to think twice about that. I can call them and ask them if they test their chocolate sources for heavy metal but somehow I doubt many are doing that.
- chris_va 3y ago
  (from experience) Most local chocolatiers (e.g. truffle makers, etc) use bulk chocolate already produced from companies like Valrhona, so it may have the same issues. Most local chocolate makers use distributors to source their cacao beans, and those distributors test the batches. The regions with high Cd/Pb levels tend to be regions that those distributors avoid. You should always ask, though.
- hgomersall 3y ago
  I wrote to our favoured UK brand (Willie's Cacao) and got a strong statement about their testing regime and the reliably good results. I guess I have to trust what they say but it's good to have some reassurance.
thomastjeffery 3y ago
Nearly all of these tests were done in 2014. I wonder how different the results would be today. Probably not much, unfortunately.
- stefan_ 3y ago
  In fact I would expect them to be very different, to the point of just being random. Tons of brands on that list that will pick their supply by price, and it will probably even differ by what batch they get.
- e40 3y ago
  You can sort on date and there are some (many) more recent ones.
  - thomastjeffery 3y ago
    I did that originally, but most have had some other filters active or something, because I remember seeing less than a page of results newer than 2014... I just tried it again, and it didn't get as old as 2014 until page 7 of 10.

by e40 3y ago

SllX 3y ago

Thanks! The results were what I expected and depressing, but at least now I know.

crazygringo 3y ago
What were you expecting? I personally can't see any kind of pattern anywhere at all, except dark chocolate is (logically) higher. Also, one-time testing isn't going to reveal much. Since different manufacturers are constantly getting different batches of beans from different farms, wouldn't the heavy metal content in any chocolate bar be essentially random? E.g. Cadbury's might be low in April, high in May, and then medium in June.
- Obscurity4340 3y ago
  Makes you wonder if there's any way to "synthesize" whatever it is that makes cacao make cacao or something to the effect of the way various opioids and flavors are already synthesized en masse, although obviously in the opioid case we're probably not gonna get around having to grow poppies forever.
  - kleton 3y ago
    Okra is vaguely related to cacao, and you can process the seeds to some sort of ersatz substance with similar flavor compounds, but it lacks the saturated fats with a melting point similar to human body temperature that makes chocolate interesting.
    - soperj 3y ago
      So just add bacon fat?
      - Obscurity4340 3y ago
        > Shhhhhhh! — Nestlé/BigNesqwik
  - chongli 3y ago
    High quality chocolate has a ton of different flavours in it. It’s extremely complex. Just like coffee, tea, wine, beer, vanilla, spirits, cheese, mushrooms (and so on; basically any luxury food). We can’t synthesize what makes these things taste good because it isn’t just one compound, it’s thousands. Even something very basic you can make at home, such as caramel, can’t be synthesized. From a very simple precursor (white sugar aka sucrose) you apply heat and the result is thousands of complex molecules. This is why caramel tastes good (like an actual food) but plain white sugar tastes pretty bad (because it’s just an ingredient).
- pbhjpbhj 3y ago
  Don't you fix these things by using the market, fine Cadbury an extra 5% pa of gross revenue if any bars are found with > N ug of any particular heavy metal. Tax all companies an extra X% if their products are in the bottom quintile for 2 consecutive years. Maybe don't fine them if they can show a person who eats their products at the 99% level, for a lifetime, would be below the level of toxicity -- the CEO can eat that much of the metal to demonstrate they're convinced that the toxicity figures are correct! In theory the chocolate producers will get a lower price unless they do what they can to reduce heavy metals. Of course the farmers get screwed in places where others have shipped their heavy-metal lawn waste ...
- SllX 3y ago
  Some level of uniformity that the issue is about as universal as it sounds across brands based off the description in the article. It is, and that kind of sucks. I mentioned this to a friend earlier and he said something along the lines of “yeah I thought this was pretty well known” so… I didn’t get the memo anyway and I am a somewhat frequent consumer of very dark chocolate.

civilitty 3y ago

A bunch of organic chocolate products from Newmans Own, Trader Joes, and Whole Foods’ brand are the worst offenders. Well shit, am I supposed to make brownies using just cannabis? The alternatives are all crap Hersheys/Mars chocolates

pbhjpbhj 3y ago
Does cannabis concentrate heavy metals itself? I can't endorsed this source, but there are plenty of others https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-12-cannabis-heavy-metals-affect-consumer.html https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-12-cannabis-heavy-metals...
- adrian_b 3y ago
  The hemp seeds, like most seeds, also concentrate lead and cadmium. The other parts of the plant have only low concentrations of metals. Nevertheless, when any plant part is burnt, the ashes concentrate all the metals from that plant part.
aksss 3y ago
Yeah it seemed that going out of way to source from most artisanal producer in exotic locations may correlate with higher levels? Not strictly true but seemed like a correlative trend in my quick pass through results. Maybe the guy growing cacao in the roadside ditch in the valley watershed needs some of that fair trade money, but soil quality may not be highest concern.
waveBidder 3y ago
Those … are all corporate knock-offs of co-ops. what did you expect?
- civilitty 3y ago
  Better quality control?
- sarchertech 3y ago
  Newmans Own isn’t a corporate knock off of a co-op. It’s corporation started by Paul Newman that donates all of its profits to charity.

flanbiscuit 3y ago

I like to buy from local independent chocolatiers and now I'll have to think twice about that. I can call them and ask them if they test their chocolate sources for heavy metal but somehow I doubt many are doing that.

chris_va 3y ago
(from experience) Most local chocolatiers (e.g. truffle makers, etc) use bulk chocolate already produced from companies like Valrhona, so it may have the same issues. Most local chocolate makers use distributors to source their cacao beans, and those distributors test the batches. The regions with high Cd/Pb levels tend to be regions that those distributors avoid. You should always ask, though.
hgomersall 3y ago
I wrote to our favoured UK brand (Willie's Cacao) and got a strong statement about their testing regime and the reliably good results. I guess I have to trust what they say but it's good to have some reassurance.

thomastjeffery 3y ago

Nearly all of these tests were done in 2014. I wonder how different the results would be today. Probably not much, unfortunately.

stefan_ 3y ago
In fact I would expect them to be very different, to the point of just being random. Tons of brands on that list that will pick their supply by price, and it will probably even differ by what batch they get.
e40 3y ago
You can sort on date and there are some (many) more recent ones.
- thomastjeffery 3y ago
  I did that originally, but most have had some other filters active or something, because I remember seeing less than a page of results newer than 2014... I just tried it again, and it didn't get as old as 2014 until page 7 of 10.