• PugJesus
        link
        fedilink
        2211 months ago

        It’s more expensive. It’s why I cut down on chocolate once I tasted real chocolate. I couldn’t go back to Hershey’s.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          1411 months ago

          Just about any other brand milk chocolate is better than Hershey’s milk chocolate bars. My favorite is Lindt.

          • PugJesus
            link
            fedilink
            1411 months ago

            I generally prefer dark chocolate once I learned there was more than “Shitty Hershey Dark Chocolate” in existence, so I go with Ghirardelli. 72% cocoa, that’s the stuff.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        -1311 months ago

        The options are essentially Nestle or Hershey chocolate here in the US. You kinda gotta pick your poison

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          56
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          Bullshit, there’s plenty of good chocolate in any major retailer. I can go to my local grocery store and find Godiva, Ghirardelli, Lindt, Ritter, along with a wide selection of miscellaneous European imports.

          The stuff you’ll find in stores is not “premium chocolatier in the Swiss Alps” quality, but it’s decent chocolate and it’s not hard to find.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            2711 months ago

            Big agree. People won’t admit it, but they just buy what they’re familiar with and complain about it being bad.

            • Zammy95
              link
              fedilink
              1111 months ago

              I think a large detterent for many is the price difference. Hershey’s kind of matches that snack price for a little treat you’d find at the front counter. Going back to the good stuff and seeing it 3 or 4 times the price will lose a lot of people. There’s a reason people say you get what you pay for though…

                • @[email protected]
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  411 months ago

                  I am buying $1 bars of dark chocolate at dollar general now. Luckily I haven’t really had good chocolate, so I don’t know what I am really missing, and I like it better than Hershey’s milk chocolate to me. Claims profits help literacy, so I doubt it is really that great of a chocolate when you get down to it. But I like it and that is enough for me.

              • Franzia
                link
                fedilink
                111 months ago

                Chocolate made it all the way down to snack price because of slavery and a lack of safety. So I no longer treat chocolate as a snack.

          • squiblet
            link
            fedilink
            911 months ago

            There’s a large range of smaller brands too. Pascha, Cultura, Raaka, Taza, Lily’s, Theo’s, Tony’s, Green and Black, Alter Eco… plus dozens of tiny regional brands. It’s about like craft beer.

          • @[email protected]OP
            link
            fedilink
            English
            511 months ago

            I used to go to the Wilbur museum all the time! The milk chocolate Wilbur buds are some of the best chocolates I’ve ever had.

        • squiblet
          link
          fedilink
          511 months ago

          You can find way more than that available at a chocolate shop, organic/natural grocery store or coffee shops and bookstores.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      3011 months ago

      If I had to name any chocolate that tastes like it has lead and cadmium in it, that’d be Hershey’s.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      611 months ago

      I haven’t eaten Hershey’s in so long because I remember it tasting mildly of vomit. Am I the only one who thinks the flavor has hints of vomit? What even is that?

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          611 months ago

          Honestly, I can barely taste it, so I don’t mind. I don’t think Hershey is that bad. It’s not good, but it’s not bad. It’s the cheap stuff.

          Lead and cadmium aside. No food product should have either of those in it.

    • ares35
      link
      fedilink
      211 months ago

      i’m weird, i guess. i like the ‘nasty’ american chocolate. i just can’t afford it except on november 1st.

    • @[email protected]OP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      111 months ago

      It burns my throat when I eat it, along with other super processed foods that are somehow legal

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            111 months ago

            Ah, I see. You do realize that reacting to “processed” things isn’t really actually a thing though right? Those are all pretty different. Either you’ve got an allergy to something they have in common or you’re letting all the fear mongering get to your head. Oooorrrrr I suppose you may get a bit of a totally normal upset stomach if you never eat anything but fresh food and then have some cookies. Which is again totally normal because it’s now not something that you regularly have in your diet.

            Either way, the processed food fear mongering is frankly getting kind of old. You’re not reacting to processed foods because they’re all “processed”. That’s not really how it works with such a variety. The way people with less resources are shamed or made to be afraid of perfectly accessible and shelf stable food isn’t really acceptable anymore. I really wish you guys would go back to being “intolerant to gluten” again or something else for attention. That actually did wonders for the people that are actually intolerant lol. I hear blaming everything on ADHD is very popular right now!

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    4011 months ago

    A confused spokesperson for Hershey argued that none of their products actually contain real chocolate.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      2311 months ago

      Cannot be sold as chocolate in the EU for two reasons;

      1.it doesn’t contain the menial amount(10%!) of chocolate required to be labeled as such.

      1. No one wants to buy that awful tasting shit
      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        511 months ago

        Pretty sure the percentage of milk fat is also too low for American Hershey’s chocolate to be classified as chocolate in Europe.

        • Trantarius
          link
          1
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          Why would any milk fat be required for something to be defined as chocolate? Chocolate doesn’t have to contain any milk at all. The only thing my brief research turned up was this, stating that they could only contain up to 5% non cocoa vegetable fats.

          Edit: This claims there is a minimum milk fat for milk chocolate, but no requirement for chocolate in general.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1011 months ago

      To each their own but the lead kisses are a bit sweeter which is more my cup of polonium.

      • Ænima
        link
        fedilink
        411 months ago

        “Lead kisses,” sounds like something an American cop would call their bullets as they tenderly complete the filling of their 12th magazine.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    3611 months ago

    Thank goodness that their horrid rotten flavor is a perfect deterrent for anyone who ever had real chocolate.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      511 months ago

      US troops giving Hershey chocolates to Iraqi and Afghani children should be considered a war crime. Here, I said it.

  • Alien Nathan Edward
    link
    fedilink
    3111 months ago

    Hershey’s be like “the slaves who were responsible for putting the poison in the chocolate have been shot. New slaves are being brought in forthwith.”

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    2811 months ago

    There’s more lead allowed in a liter of drinking water in the US than a serving of any of the chocolates being reported, as far as I can find. (15 micrograms per liter.) Provided nobody’s eating a few dozen bars of chocolate in a single sitting I can’t imagine accumulating enough to cause acute harm from the chocolate alone. Chasing down Hershey, Nestle et al to hold them accountable is great, but in terms of toxic metals we’d have more success and greater impact lighting up the news about water supplies.

    Just mildly frustrated that I continue to see talk about chocolate while drinking water is a necessity and consumed in greater amounts daily but rarely gets reported outside of extreme cases like Flint.

    • Cethin
      link
      fedilink
      English
      911 months ago

      Sure, but getting that same amount of lead from water as well as each type of food you eat is going to add together.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        2
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        Sure, but you can just not eat Hershey bars. It’s really such a trivial concern when compared to the drinking water for entire populations.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          1
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          For one, it’s not an either-or thing. Reporting on lead in chocolate isn’t detracting from awareness of lead in water.

          Sure, but you can just not eat Hershey bars.

          And second: that. There’s lead in this chocolate? Okay I won’t eat this chocolate. Lead intake reduced.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      1511 months ago

      If you sort by highest lead content you get “NOW Healthy Foods Certified Organic Cocoa Powder 100% Pure” as the top result, and highest cadmium content you get “Sunfood Super Foods Raw Cacao Powder- Certified Organic” at the top. I find it hilariously ironic that the two highest ones are “Certified Organic”. Also, the highest lead one was “100% pure”.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        811 months ago

        What does the “ug” stand for in that table. It isn’t actually a “u” but it kind of looks like a u

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        211 months ago

        Lead would be considered organic to the extent that it’s not added to the product. Hell arsnic is organic.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          111 months ago

          If by that you mean that the lead was naturally added when it was growing and not during any processing stages, then see https://lemmy.world/comment/4831887. According to an article I found, most of the lead seems to be coming from the the cocoa being processed, not from when it was first grown. Although, it IS only one article, so I may be wrong.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        1
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        That’s because cacao containing cadmium/lead is an “organic”(ish) problem. The cacao tree pulls it from the soil.

        Edited (See below for correction)

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          311 months ago

          That’s interesting, I didn’t know that before, so I did a bit of research on this, and while you are right that Cacao seeds do absorb some lead naturally when growing, a couple studies have shown that most of the lead that ends up in cacao likely comes from after the farming stage,

          Because of the high capacity of cocoa bean shells to adsorb lead, contamination from leaded gasoline emissions may occur during the fermentation and sun-drying of unshelled beans at cocoa farms. … However, the much higher lead concentrations and larger variability in lead isotopic composition of finished cocoa products, which falls within the global range of industrial lead aerosols, indicate that most contamination occurs during shipping and/or processing of the cocoa beans and the manufacture of cocoa and chocolate products. source

          So most lead contamination came from processing the chocolate rather than from the tree absorbing it. Also, the same article says that the lead is likely from gasoline vapors, not from the soil,

          One source of contamination of the finished products is tentatively attributed to atmospheric emissions of leaded gasoline, which is still being used in Nigeria. Because of the high capacity of cocoa bean shells to adsorb lead, contamination from leaded gasoline emissions may occur during the fermentation and sun-drying of unshelled beans at cocoa farms. Source (same as before)

          I haven’t read the whole article, but I think this is good enough to serve as a counter-argument. Also, I know the article says “cocoa” instead of “cacao”, but it seems “cocoa” is basically just processed “cacao”, according to this article on healthline. So basically, the use of cacao and cocoa is inconsistent and may just refer to cocoa beans and/or processed cocoa beans.

          Also, I found this article, which seems like the abstract to this source, but I can’t figure out if it really is or not. If anyone has any idea of the relationship between the two articles I’d be happy to hear it.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            111 months ago

            That’s some pretty solid research! Thanks for taking the time to look into it and correct me. I didn’t realize leaded gasoline was still widely used. It will likely continue to poison the soil as well.

            It does appear there is some bioaccumulation of cadmium (PDF) though/contamination from the soil during processing as CyberDine pointed out.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      111 months ago

      Whoa, that site is awesome! I switch between Ghirardelli’s and Lindt’s super dark bar varieties. Looks like I need to stick with Ghirardelli.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      26
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      I mean they kinda do, the cacao tree pulls those elements (cadmium) out of the soil or the cacao is in contact with soil containing those elements during processing. Many brands have issues with lead and cadmium but it can be mitigated by choosing a better supplier, frequent testing, and protecting product better during shipment. Mentioning Hershey’s is going to draw a lot of attention especially right before Halloween but it’s a common issue in chocolate.

      Edited with some corrections. Also mrchampion pointed out further down in this thread that it is likely the lead contamination comes from leaded gasoline during shipment.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        5
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        The article mentions that the cadmium can largely be mitigated by preventing the beans from touching dirt in the drying process and shielding them from heavy metal dust. The lead though is probably introduced at the factory, and that’s obviously a problem but not immediately clear where it’s being introduced.

        It also mentions that the only likely reason milk chocolate doesn’t have these unsafe levels is because the dairy content reduces the amount of pure chocolate requires for the mix. So both milk and dark chocolate are bad, it’s just milk chocolate has cocoa in it and thus less heavy metal.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          1
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          mrchampion corrected another comment of mine in this thread that links studies saying the lead might change from leaded gasoline used during the shipping process.

          This publishing (PDF) does seem to indicate the is done degree of bioaccumulation of cadmium in the cacao plants though.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    1011 months ago

    But we just brought out “Her She” packaging. Now you want us to remove lead, which was saving us over a quarter cent per pallet? Millennial entitlement is truly boundless.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    911 months ago

    Here’s Consumer Reports Dec. 2022 report that lists chocolate by company.

    This was the report that started a run on dark chocolate from certain sources that helped raise prices to the crazy levels they are now (along with a worldwide shortage).

  • TinyPizza
    link
    fedilink
    611 months ago

    I ate a chunky bar the other night, because you know, sadness, and then went for a run a while later. A mile or so in my kidneys started to hurt. I can’t say it was for sure the chunky bar but they haven’t hurt like that before or since. What type of villainous corporate hack poisons the thing that’s supposed to be the small escape of joy?

    Also, Chunky is Nestle but still my bias says poison. I’m prepared to now receive your insults for liking Chunky bars.

    • krellor
      link
      fedilink
      411 months ago

      The common thread seems to be the concentration of cocoa solids, since all the concerning products had greater levels (dark chocolate, powders, etc). The Chucky bar being milk chocolate should be fine, per the article.

        • krellor
          link
          fedilink
          511 months ago

          If you are taking about supporting a particularly flagrant bad corporate actor, then I agree. If about the safety of the milk chocolate, then the article indicates otherwise.