Cadbury announced this week they’ll be printing a new warning, in bright yellow caps, on its Dairy Milk chocolate bars. Brace yourselves. The warning is CONTAINS: MILK. And to eliminate any doubt in consumers’ minds, Cadbury Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut bars will include the warning CONTAINS: MILK, NUTS.
Cynical me thought Cadbury was announcing this news to shift attention away from the other ingredient starting with “M” in their chocolate bars. But no — it’s just the government butting in with their labeling laws.
This is insane. I’m all for ingredient lists on food labels. Several of my son’s friends have severe food allergies. But an additional warning? Does the government really think someone with a nut or milk allergy will pick up a Cadbury Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut bar and think, “Yummy!” (I’ll point out a young child might bite into the bar, but if he can’t read, the special warning is pointless, isn’t it.)
Here’s the deal. On average 20 people die each year in the UK from anaphylactic reactions, some of which (not all) are triggered by foods like nuts and dairy.
On the other hand, the British government reports that 30,000 deaths every year can be attributed to obesity. The Cadbury Dairy Milk bar includes 9.1 grams of saturated fat. Why not add the warning CONTAINS: SATURATED FAT ? Isn’t saturated fat killing more people? ETA: Saturated fats are a tad sneakier than the dairy in a Dairy Milk bar … after all, they’re not called “Cadbury Sat Fat Bars.”
Nothing against Cadbury Dairy Milk bars, by the way. I’m just against silly regulatatory laws. </rant>
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Ha, Diana, that’s really funny! I do like that warnings in Europe are more specific than they are here, like on the cigarettes, where they say something like: “smoking leads to a painful, choking, wheezing death” or, more horrifying “smoking cigarettes leads to bad skin”. Maybe they should get more specific with the warning labels on the chocolate, like, “will make your ass very large.”
Seriously. Or “Eating lots of this product will probably make your ass large and your heart explode.”
P.S. to the Brits reading this — believe me, our government takes this idiocy to the extreme. I know — I used to write product labels for caulking. Stuff like, “The contents of this container are not meant for consumption.” Sometimes I used to amuse myself by adding things like, “Nor is this container meant for sexual gratification.”