Those Chocolate Easter Treats Could Be Killing You: Consumer Advocates

BY TONY CANTU

We're terribly sorry to insert this figurative bee in your Easter bonnet, but that Cadbury egg you’re enjoying could be killing you.

A California-based nonprofit is warning consumers the coveted Cadbury Creme Egg pieces in their Easter baskets might as well be called a “Leadbury” or "Cadmiumbury" egg, given what they allege to be illegal levels of cadmium and/or lead found in the otherwise mouth-watering confection.

The news gets worse, chocolate lovers: The group’s press release claims dangerous amounts of the heavy metals were found in a range of products sold by Hershey's,Whole Foods, Mars, Trader Joe's, See's, Ghirardelli, and others.

They produced a list of the candies tested, and you can find it here. The aforementioned Cadbury products make it onto the dubious tally.

"We assumed that companies were testing their products before they put them on the market, but they’re not,” the CEO of You Sow, which produced the list, told the CBS affiliate in San Francisco.

It’s a heavy charge, and one the group has aired before, the Washington Post reports.

Not surprisingly, chocolate candy merchants beg to differ with the findings. A Hershey’s spokesperson told the Post the Food & Drug Administration monitors its products for cadmium and lead, and have determined the candies are safe for human consumption.

"People have been eating cocoa and chocolate for centuries with no evidence of a single incident of concern regarding these naturally occurring minerals," a Hershey's spokesperson told the Post.

The National Confectioners Association notes that virtually all foods contain some lead and cadmium, elements that are naturally found in soil and water.

The You Sow people offer a rebuttal to that argument, citing a 2005 study that found chocolate contained some of the highest lead concentrations among all food. The problem is further exacerbated when considering the high amount of chocolate Americans eat on average: 9.5 pounds per person each year.

Oh, well, I’ll just eat dark chocolate which I hear is better for you and even has more healthful attributes, Patch hears you saying.

Again, apologies to interrupt your post-Easter-egg hunt binge, but there’s also bad news about dark chocolate. You can click on the highlighted text to read about that; we feel bad enough having to bring you the alarming news about the chocolate Easter treats you may be eating even as you read this.

But remember: If you feel a tad heavier after consuming your treats, it could be all that lead -- all that alleged lead, we should say. We're just the messengers here, chocolate treat makers.

>>> Image via WikiMedia Commons