Barry Callebaut bans animal experiments

PETA

 Following communications with PETA and its affiliates, Barry Callebaut – “the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate & cocoa products”, which announced a deal in May that will have it acquire Australian chocolate manufacturer GKC Foods by the end of 2020 – has banned all experiments on animals conducted for the purpose of making human health claims for its products and ingredients.

Prior to Barry Callebaut’s compassionate decision, PETA US uncovered experiments that the company had funded or contributed to – none of which were required by law – published between 2007 and 2019, using at least 480 mice, rats, and pigs.

“Barry Callebaut has unwrapped the golden ticket in making the kind decision to ban animal testing on its products, and consumers will be delighted,” says PETA Campaigns Advisor Mimi Bekhechi. “PETA is urging other food manufacturers to follow Barry Callebaut’s compassionate lead by banning cruel, wasteful, curiosity-driven experiments on animals.”

As part of its campaign to end animal testing in the global food industry, PETA US has exposed how, for decades, manufacturers have conducted or funded cruel laboratory tests in which thousands of animals have been cut open, tormented, and killed – all in misguided attempts to make marketing claims about products ranging from ramen noodles to candy bars to breakfast cereals to liquor. Read more about these food- and beverage-industry experiments here.

Barry Callebaut joins a growing list of dozens of companies – including Barilla, The Coca-Cola Company, General Mills, House Foods, Kellogg Company, Kikkoman, Lipton, Ocean Spray, PepsiCo, POM Wonderful, Strauss Group, Welch’s, and Yakult Honsha – that have worked with PETA scientists to replace animal tests with effective, ethical, economical, non-animal research models.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview – also applauds Barry Callebaut’s sweet pledge earlier this year to turn its German factory into one that produces solely vegan chocolate “to satisfy the growing consumer demand for plant-based indulgence” as well as its acquisition of GKC Foods, whose Melbourne factory “produces a wide range of products including … vegan chocolate”.

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