Organic chocolate off market after cancer substance found

Consumer Health News

Nov 22, 2007, 16:53 GMT

Berlin - A German organic-foods company has withdrawn its 'fair trade' chocolate from the market after testers found in it high levels of a substance that causes cancer. The Rapunzel company recalled all blocks of Bio Negro bittersweet chocolate after the revelation that they contained benzopyrene, a dangerous substance also found in diesel smoke and burned toast. Heike Kirsten of Rapunzel said chemists had been engaged to analyse it and detect the source. Fair trade products are supposed to cut out the middleman, while ensuring that Third World peasants benefit from a higher price. Bio Negro was also advertised as free of pesticides. German consumer testing agency Stiftung Warentest detected the contamination in a product test of several bittersweet chocolate brands. Other chocolates passed the test as safe, though they contained small amounts of cadmium. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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Organic chocolate off market after cancer substance found

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