News briefs: Hershey, factory fire and brain power
fire kills a worker in Denmark; and yet another book promotes the
health benefits of dark chocolate.
Hershey slammed for drug-like pouches A councilman has this week called for US company Hershey to withdraw the Ice Breakers Pac product, accusing the company of marketing the breath mints to look like crack cocaine, according to the Philadelphia Daily News. According to the newspaper, the powdered mint is even packaged in a slide-top case, similar to those used by drug dealers across the company. "This is appalling," Ramos said. "I'd think a very prominent, successful company - someone in their marketing department would have noticed, unless they're that out of touch with what goes on." The pouches are so indistinguishable from crack cocaine they even had the local narcotics squad confused, he added. According to the Philadelphia Daily News, Ramos will introduce a resolution a council meeting today denouncing the Hershey Company and urging it to "repackage the product in a more responsible manner". In response, Hershey claimed that it was unlikely that consumers would mistake the mint for crack cocaine. "The product is clearly labeled with ingredients and nutritional information and it's clearly identified as an Ice Breakers product," the company said. The outrage is the latest headache in a series of upsets for the largest confectionery company in the US. In October, the company got rid of eight top executives after dire financial results, and last week Hershey was implicated in a price fixing scandal in Canada along with Cadbury and Mars. Chocolate factory fire ends in tragedy Production was today halted at a AarhusKarlshamn's (AAK) Plant in Denmark, after an explosion and fire resulted in the death of a worker. The accident occurred in facility where vegetable oils are processed to be used in chocolate and confectionery fats, the company said. Managing director Jørgen Balle said an examination carried out by the authorities will reveal what started the fire, however "it will take some days before it is possible to gain an overview of the damage and what caused the accident". The company also promised to conduct a thorough review of security practices throughout the plant to prevent similar accidents from occurring in the future. Some production been moved to other AAK plants in the country, Balle said, however profits will be lost as other processing lines have been brought to a standstill. Chocolate boosts brain power, report Yet another report has been published glorifying the health benefits of dark chocolate in the UK, encouraging individuals to make chocolate part of a brain power boosting regime. Authors Terry Horne and Simon Wootton argue in their book "Teach Yourself: Training your brain", that the chemicals in dark chocolate helps increase blood flow to the brain, which in turn increases cognitive function. According to the book, individuals should engage in a range of activities that create "optimum conditions in the brain" in this way, as the brain is a "chemical factory." "You are not just a passive victim of your genes," Horne told Reuters. "You can created spare cognitive capacity." Other suggested pro-active strategies include having regular sex and eating cold meats for breakfast, as well as avoiding excessive alcohol and cannabis consumption, he added.
