Chocolate Giant Barry Callebaut Bans Animal Experiments
Appeal by PETA and Its Affiliates Prompts New Public Policy by Company, Which Was Involved in Animal Testing
For Immediate Release:
July 16, 2020
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
Following communications with PETA and its affiliates, Barry Callebaut—”the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate & cocoa products,” with net sales of more than $7 billion last year—publicly announced that it will not conduct, fund, or commission any animal experiments unless they are explicitly required by law.
Prior to this compassionate decision, PETA uncovered experiments on animals that the company contributed to—which were not required by law—published between 2007 and 2019.
“Barry Callebaut has unwrapped the golden ticket, and consumers will be delighted,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “PETA is urging other food manufacturers, such as MSG giant Ajinomoto, to follow Barry Callebaut’s 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 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, Robertet S.A., 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 a German factory into one that produces solely vegan chocolate “to satisfy the growing consumer demand for plant-based indulgence.”
