Who doesn't love chocolate? It is a favourite snack for everyone, from kids to the elderly and even healthy eaters who opt for dark chocolate. I often buy chocolates as souvenirs for relatives and friends. So it was a shock to me when I learned from the Foundation for Consumers that most of the imported chocolates, even from Europe, contain heavy metals.
The foundation randomly sampled 19 chocolates, including 10 dark chocolates and nine milk chocolates available on shelves in Thailand from August to September.
It found that 18 out of 19 chocolates are contaminated with cadmium or lead or even both of these toxic substances, according to the Foundation for Consumers secretary-general, Saree Ongsomwang.
The laboratory test showed the result that the darker the chocolate, the higher the level of the cadmium.
The study has been picked up by the media and was published this month in Chalad Sue (www.chaladsue.com), the monthly magazine of the foundation.
Top of the samples that contains highest levels of both cadmium and lead is Lindt Excellence Dark 85% Cocoa from Switzerland. The chocolate has 0.14mg per kg (mg/kg) of cadmium and 0.03mg/kg of lead.
Ranked second is another Swiss-made chocolate, Toblerone. Its dark chocolate with honey and almond nougat has 0.10mg/kg of cadmium and 0.03mg/kg of lead, followed closely by Beryl's 80% cacao dark chocolate coklat hitam from Malaysia (0.08mg/kg of cadmium and 0.05mg/kg of lead).
Fourth is GuyLian Belgian Chocolate Dark 72% (0.06mg/kg of cadmium and 0.04mg/kg of lead) and the fifth is Ritter Sport 50% cocoa dark chocolate with fine cocoa from Papua New Guinea (0.05mg/kg of cadmium and 0.03mg/kg of lead).
The only chocolate in which the research team didn't find any contaminant of lead and cadmium is the Lindt Swiss Classic white chocolate.
I contacted Lindt, GuyLian and Ritter Sport to ask for their responses. Only Lindt replied to my email.
According to Sara Thallner, corporate communications manager of Lindt & Sprüngli, the contamination is not the result of its manufacturing processes.
She reasons that the heavy metals are "naturally occurring elements in the soil" that cocoa trees absorb, like other plants that can absorb cadmium from soil such as cereals or vegetables.
"Minimal traces of cadmium and lead may be detected in chocolate. However, these small amounts are harmless for consumption," she said, adding that the cocoa mass-produced from cocoa beans and used in its products is also regularly tested for cadmium to ensure that it is within the limits.
But according to the World Health Organisation, lead and cadmium are stored in our body for decades, and that can lead to an increased risk of cancer.
For consumers like us, I totally agree with Saree of the Foundation for Consumers that it is best if the chocolate does not have toxins at all.
I don't want to buy chocolate that is contaminated with cadmium or lead even at the tiny amount of 0.1 mg/kg. I believe you do not want your children or your loved ones to consume contaminated chocolate too. No one in their right mind would treat their children with poison-contaminated sweets if it could be avoided.
When we care about what we eat, we want chocolate factories to care about the source of their cacao beans, too.
The Foundation for Consumers also suggests that the government revise our food-safety legislation because Thailand doesn't yet have a law to limit the maximum amount of cadmium in chocolate.
The outdated notification of the Public Health Ministry BE 2527, issued 27 years ago, only states the limits for three heavy metals in chocolates: lead, copper and arsenic.
Saree urged the ministry to increase the limits of cadmium in chocolates and cocoa powder in its regulation, following the good example of the new regulation of the European Commission, to be enforced on Jan 1, 2019.
The commission will extend the maximum cadmium normally found in seafood, certain vegetables and meats, and chocolate and cocoa powder.
The European Commission's regulation will limit cadmium to 0.8mg/kg for chocolate with more than 50% of cocoa, 0.1mg/kg for chocolate with less than 30% for cocoa, 0.30mg/kg for chocolate with 30-50% of cocoa and 0.6mg/kg for cocoa powder.
The Thai government should seriously apply the standard of the European Commission; otherwise, those contaminated chocolates that will not pass the European standard are likely to be more available in developing countries like Thailand.
Consumers should be alarmed and make noise. We want the standard and we want the change.
Karnjana Karnjanatawe is a travel writer of the Bangkok Post's Life section.
