For those new to this website:
Tamara Rubin is a multiple-federal-award-winning independent advocate for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety, and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children (two of her sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005). Since 2009, Tamara has been using XRF technology (a scientific method used by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission) to test consumer goods for toxicants (specifically heavy metals — including Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Antimony, and Arsenic). Tamara’s work was featured in Consumer Reports Magazine in February 2023 (March 2023 print edition).
Friday — December 16, 2022
Intro: The image above is what I posted on social media tonight. This was in response to hearing from five separate Lead Safe Mama readers with the “canned” response they received from HU Chocolate (below — in full) in response to contacting HU about concerns for Lead and Cadmium in their chocolate, as demonstrated by the Consumer Reports piece published yesterday (link to the Consumer Reports article, and a link to my overview piece about Chocolate — which I wrote in 2013).
I will be publishing my response to this shortly, however, I wanted to make sure everyone saw (and read with wonder and amazement) this extremely well-crafted piece of greenwashing bullshit. This is NOT a good look on you HU. You really need to fire your marketing/ P.R. people for this insane (disrespectful, dismissive, defensive, misleading) statement you published. My upcoming response will take their statement (below) apart point by point. Stand by — it’s late on a Friday night (9:30 now!), I have kids (and no childcare), but I will do my best to draft my response ASAP.
Ack, seriously!!! WTF. That’s totally greenwashing all the way. As far as I know Consumer Reports is not to be dismissed. What a poor response. We the concerned, are serious! Seems like lots of Moms and Grandmas and outliers like me, really care about kids and people’s health in general. Hu needs to do better. ( I hate chocolate and dark chocolate in particular, and rarely eat it, but darn some stunning results. My vice is/was spinach, so I feel the pain). I will never buy Hu.
Disrespectful response by HU indeed! Why would I buy Hu when I can buy Mast, Taza, or even a few of the Ghirardelli options listed in the report?
I had just bought a bunch and have been pondering on the severity of these levels and wondering about Hu’s position on the issue. But with this defensive and cheeky reply, I am going to return them all and move to Mast. Since this is their main line of business they should at least state look further into it and look for ways to self-test and try to improve on the levels of these chemicals. Too bad.
I find their response perfectly acceptable, in line with science, and not at all dismissive. What am I missing?
Same…♀️
Your complete and total focus on lead shows that you are a government agency or shill. Stop being pathetic and banning everything via FALSE and CRIMINAL health and safety LIES, you trash loser(s). Chocolate is fine, but I notice that you gloss over the real culprit of heavy metals in children, which is Chinese manufacturing and dependence on China. So you shill this complete BS and call clear FACT “greenwashing” (whatever that stupid nonsense is supposed to mean). All you do is show chaos and spread confusion about clear subjects. You are completely worthless.
Hey! Have you posted your response to this? If you have, I can’t find it!
Thank you,
Barb
Just my personal experience with HU chocolate… My fingernails were separating from the nail bed. Neither my naturopathic doctor, or my primary medical doctor had a clue. I started researching and learned that dark chocolate tend to be fairly high and lead. Then I saw that HU chocolate was higher than most. I had been consuming one or two of the very small HU chocolate dots for sometime in the evening. I changed nothing else, but stopped consuming most chocolate products, especially the HU chocolate. All of my fingernails have returned to normal. Also, I did heavy metal testing at the beginning of all this. My lead was off the charts. I can’t remember the exact measurement they use for lead but my number was 58. HU should be ashamed for deceiving their customers and continuing to sell this dangerous product.