A US consumer has filed a lawsuit against 'Hershey's', a famous consumer magazine in the United States, reporting that 'heavy metals in dark chocolate products exceeding the limit in some states' were detected.
According to Reuters and NPR, on the 28th, a complaint requesting a class action against Hershey was submitted to Central Islip Support for the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Christopher Lazarzaro, a resident of Nassau County, New York, is seeking collective compensation from consumers, claiming that Hershey's did not list the heavy metal content of its products, and tests showed some products contained unsafe levels of lead and cadmium.
Lazaro argued that if the heavy metal content had been labeled, he would not have bought these products or paid less for them.
Lazaro argued that Hirsch could not have been unaware of the presence of lead and cadmium in the product, and that he should have stated the lead and cadmium content on the packaging.
There are three types of Hershey's dark chocolate products, one 'Hershey' and two 'Lily's' brands.
Lily is a chocolate brand that puts 'non-genetically modified, gluten-free' as a marketing point, and was sold to Hershey in June of last year for 536 billion won in our money.
Prior to this, Consumer Reports, a consumer magazine in the United States, collected and inspected 28 types of dark chocolate products from 21 brands on the market, and found that lead or cadmium was detected at levels exceeding the California standard in 23 of them.
The maximum permissible intake levels under California standards are 0.5 micrograms of lead and 4.1 micrograms of cadmium.
There are no federal government standards for lead and cadmium levels in most foods, including chocolate.
According to the Consumer Reports, cadmium accumulates in the process of absorbing nutrients from the soil, and lead contamination is estimated to occur during the drying, processing, and transportation of cacao fruits after harvest.
Dark chocolate is known to contain higher levels of heavy metals than milk chocolate because it contains a higher proportion of cocoa.
However, it is pointed out that the standards of California, which Consumer Reports used as a comparison standard this time, are too strict, and considering the general intake, the heavy metal content of the dark chocolate products tested is far below the level that causes health problems.
Andrew Stollbach, a toxicologist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told NPR that the low doses were "nothing to worry about".
Also, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is recommending a much more flexible standard than the standard set by the state of California for the allowable daily intake of lead, NPR reported.
(Photo = Capture from the Consumer Reports website, Yonhap News)