Heavy Metals in your Valentine’s Day Chocolate?!
Valentines Day is around the corner and the month of love also has a reputation for the month of buying CHOCOLATE! With the recent news articles about the study done by Consumer Reports (2), the presence of toxic heavy metals in our favorite chocolate bars is devastating for all chocoholics. There is another study (3) done by As You Sow that shows the results from even more chocolate brands! As a reminder, these tests done are a “moment in time,” meaning it’s a one-time test showing the results from that specific batch of chocolate from a specific lot of cocoa beans from a specific crop. Manufacturers may purchase from different farmers in different regions according to cost or for a variety of reasons. That being said, there may be a pattern in some manufacturers testing results where maybe they consistently buy lower-quality beans and inadvertently expose them further to lead throughout production. It’s up to both the farmers of cacao beans and manufacturers of chocolate to ensure