Snack industry experts have long suspected Mars Wrigley’s acquiring a minority stake from KIND Snacks last year was its first move to eventually swallow one of the trendiest snack bar makers in the US.
Mars plans to quit industry-funded science group, the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), and says it will support research regardless of results after making its science policy public.
Nine major cocoa and chocolate companies have committed $8.5m to an initiative aiming to prove a business case to improve the quality of education in Ivorian cocoa communities.
Mars Wrigley Confectionery has defended accusations it is fueling an unjust association between chocolate and health by funding cocoa flavanol research and says chocolate ‘should not be considered a health food’.
While Mars is currently the market leader in China’s chocolate confectionery space, Ferrero has been growing over the past five years with increased shares year-over-year, the latest Euromonitor data shows.
Hershey has decided not to renew its membership with the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) in 2018, but it remains part of the National Confectioners Association (NCA).
A scientist at the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) said chocolate would not go extinct as reported by multiple media outlets recently, even though global warming could shrink the cultivatable areas for cocoa trees.
