After removing Hershey owned Scharffen Berger Chocolates from its stores due to ongoing concerns over Hershey’s sourcing procedures and child labor, BevNet reports that Whole Foods is now requiring all of its coconut water vendors to conduct ethical sourcing audits from a list of store approved 3rd party auditors.
Another Hershey brand, Dagoba Chocolate, sells organic, rainforest alliance certified and a few fair-trade certified products is not impacted by the removal. However, as rated by non-profit advocacy group GreenAmerica, Dag0ba got a passing grade of C, far less than other brands such as Alter Eco, Equal Exchange and others. Dagoba, was purchased in 2006 from chocolate pioneer Fred Schilling who is now co-owner at the innovative and inspirational Big Tree Farms.
Another leading organic chocolate brand, Green & Blacks is owned by Altria Kraft. Purchased by Cadbury in 2005 Green & Black became part of the Kraft Foods stable when the Kraft acquired Cadbury in 2010. Shortly after the Kraft takeover, rumors emerged that former Green & Black executives were seeking to buy back the chocolate maker never amounted to more than talk.
Green America Rates Chocolate Brands
See the Green America chocolate scorecard here.
[…] the fact that NBN loves Middle Eastern food as much as ice cream and misses Brooklyn’s Sahadi Market as much as Zabar’s, I didn’t know zatar from a sitar. Turns out in zatar is ancient […]
[…] noted last here Whole Foods recently announced that all coconut water vendors will be required to conduct ethical sourcing audits. In 2012 the company removed Hershey owned Scharffen Berger chocolates from store shelves due to […]