The chocolate and cocoa industry has pledged $3m in new funds to global cocoa sustainability as major firms including Mondelez, Hershey and Cargill talk about their new initiatives.
Fair Trade USA is considering much maligned changes to its labeling policy that would no longer require brands to source ingredients from a Fair Trade source even when one is available – is its draft policy fair or misleading?
Cocoa butter is estimated to be the fat source for around 40% of chocolate bars compared to 5% for cocoa butter equivalents (CBE) – but the balance could be shifting.
Lawrence T. Graham, president of the National Confectioners Association (NCA) said sugar industry reform is needed to keep the American confectionery industry competitive.
Nestlé USA announced at the National Confectioners Association (NCA) show that the company is expanding its Nestlé Cocoa Plan responsible sourcing program to its American product offerings.
Using palm oil certified as sustainable under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is no longer enough to ensure companies are acting responsibly, claims the WWF following the adoption of new RSPO standards.
Fair Trade USA claims that draft changes to its labeling policy allowing brands with 20% certified ingredients to carry its logo are justified in composite products like chocolate because components like sugar are mainly sourced domestically in the US...
Not-for-profit organization Fair World Project has criticized changes to Fair Trade USA's labeling policy, which allows chocolate to carry the seal when it contains a high percentage of other ingredients like sugar that are not fairly traded.
Mondelez International has followed its peers Nestlé and Mars in making commitments to tackle gender inequality on cocoa farms after coming under fire from Oxfam and consumers.
Consumers in New Zealand are spending more on healthier and ethical chocolate variants - a move that has aided growth in the burgeoning sector, an analyst says.
The US’s largest natural foods retail cooperative PCC Natural Markets claims it has become the first grocer in the nation to sell chocolate made only from ethically sourced cocoa.
Nestlé has released a series of deforestation guides for commodity sourcing in partnership with Conservation International, to give a clearer idea of where deforestation is occurring globally.
A 10,000 ton shipment of fertilizer arrived in the principal cocoa growing nation Ivory Coast today as part of an industry-backed initiative to double productivity on cocoa farms.
A Rainforest Foundation ethical food product guide based on companies’ palm oil use unjustly discourages the use of palm oil even if it is sustainably sourced, claims the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
Mars Chocolate promises to assess conditions for women cocoa farmers and will sign up to the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles after Oxfam accused it of neglecting gender inequality.
The EU’s sugar quota fell three million metric tons short of demand in 2012 leading to an 11% price hike, but the deficit is not expected to increase due to stagnant demand for sugar-based foods and health concerns, according to market analysts Euromonitor...
ConfectioneryNews.com examines the sustainable cocoa commitments of one of the leading premium chocolate makers, Lindt, after it announced a big charitable investment last week.
Hershey has called attacks on its text messaging tips for farmers program CocoaLink “disingenuous” after a group of NGOs questioned the effectiveness of the project.
The industry has pledged $10m in new funds since 2010 to eliminate the worst forms of child labor, but a newly released report says the job is far from over.
Lindt & Sprüngli’s operating profit rose 10.3% in 2012 and the company has declared itself “partially unaffected” by the continuing economic downturn as consumers still seek quality chocolate in tough times.
Oxfam has called on the three biggest chocolate manufacturers to conduct independent audits on conditions for women on cocoa farms supplying their factories after finding evidence of unequal pay, discrimination and hunger.
Oxfam will step up its campaign to improve the treatment of people and resources that form part of the supply chain of the world’s biggest food conglomerates, after it cast industry responses to its damning Behind the Brands report as ‘bland’ and ‘complacent’.
Unilever and Nestlé say Oxfam missed an opportunity for a wider and more comprehensive debate about food ethics after the NGO published a damning report on the supply chains of the world’s biggest food firms this week.
Associated British Foods – worst-in-class in an Oxfam report critical of 10 food giants for essentially operating under a corporate social responsibility (CSR) “veil of secrecy” – has hit back, slamming the report ‘s findings as “ridiculous”.
The Philippines can evolve as a top-quality cocoa source and serve the needs of growing demand for chocolate in Asia, according to a start-up company trading beans in the market.
Working from beans to chocolate or farmer to consumer brings with it a lot of advantages – including strong sector knowledge and the ability to identify and respond to market trends, says Cémoi.
Confectionery can overcome its unhealthy and industrially-produced image by marketing the authenticity of products and doing more to engage consumers, says the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI).
Barry Callebaut has unveiled new cocoa and chocolate products at ISM in Cologne, including Cameroon origin cocoa for baked goods, and single origin chocolate from Cameroon and Java.
Barry Callebaut has announced that it is switching to Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified palm oil for compounds and filling at most plants.
The chocolate industry is behind in tackling some cocoa supply issues and must work more closely to avert shortages, according to Mars’ head of sustainability.
We look back at the biggest news of this year including groundbreaking innovations, the push towards sustainable cocoa, and the launch of a new confectionery titan.
The Hershey Company has joined the advisory council of a new non-profit organization – the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) - that aims to develop industry-wide standards on sustainability.
Barry Callebaut’s joint venture cocoa partner Biopartenaire is now Rainforest Alliance Certified - a move that forms part of a wider puzzle of efforts towards sustainability, it said.
Action on sustainable cocoa must happen in two years, not ten and requires a holistic approach far beyond simple certification and increased production, the editor of a new report says.
Nestlé has opened an extended product technology center for confectionery in the UK, which will better enable it to develop products and packaging with sustainable materials.
The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has urged Cargill to take clear, decisive action to ensure its palm oil suppliers commit to sustainable production, while Cargill has said that RAN allegations of malpractice are unfounded and untrue.
Greenpeace has published a scorecard rating palm oil producers’ sustainability efforts, in order to provide food and other consumer goods companies with better information about how their palm oil is produced.
Modern consumers want the best of all worlds when it comes to bakery and chocolate products, with quality & price, local & global, tradition & innovation, and pleasures & health existing together, according to results of a global survey...
Cargill has extended its sustainable cocoa program to Indonesia and plans to take preventative measure to turn ailing crops into high cocoa yielding money-spinners.
