The good and bad eggs of chocolate – latest Chocolate Scorecard is out!

The latest Chocolate Scorecard is on hand to help you choose the most ethical and environmentally friendly chocolate options naming Tony’s Chocolonely, Mars, Beyond Good and the Co-Op coming in tops but, sadly, multinational Mondelēz, producers of Cadbury, Toblerone, Green & Black’s, Oreo and Daim, have been called out as the “Bad Egg” this year.

This handy annual initiative produced by Be Slavery Free, in collaboration with two Australian universities and a wide range of consultants and sustainability experts, ranks companies across the entire chocolate sector – from major multinational producers through to retailers – on a wide range of sustainability policies and practices.

This year, 60 companies from around the world were invited to participate. Collectively, these companies purchase more than 90% of the world’s cocoa.

There have been some improvements across the board. Transparency has increased, with 82% of companies now fully disclosing child labour data, up from 45% in 2023. The data reported also shows the discovery of child labour is down in the sector. Gender equity too has seen some improvements.

Sadly, deforestation is still high, with more than a third of cocoa bought by companies coming from deforested or unknown sources.

Companies reported that 84% of cocoa farmers in their supply chain are NOT earning a living income – or their income is unknown. And there has been less progress on the use of pesticides to address the chronic exposure of communities to harmful chemicals than hoped for.

Companies are categorised as either large, small (less than 1,000 tons of cocoa) or retailers. They’re evaluated based on a range of policies and practices including:

• traceability and transparency levels across supply chains

• whether they pay farmers a living income

• efforts to prevent the use of child labour

• action on climate and deforestation

• how they support agroforestry

• efforts to eliminate the use of harmful pesticides.

Awards were given out this year to the best and the worst performers – a “Good Egg” award in each category, a gender award, and a “Bad Egg” award overall.

Impressively, Tony’s Chocolonely won the Good Egg award in the large company category, scoring the highest against the six markers, representing the most sustainable chocolate company according to the scorecard. Other “Good Eggs” included Ritter and Mars with an outstanding score for gender equity.

Sadly the “Bad Egg” award was given to Mondelēz, producers of Cadbury, Toblerone, Green & Black’s, Oreo and Daim. The award recognises the company’s decision not to participate in this year’s chocolate scorecard process, indicating of a lack of transparency and public accountability. Mondelēz did participate in the last (fifth) edition, ranking 25th out of 38 large companies. The company has not provided a reason for not participating this year. However, it is an outlier, as all other large chocolate companies participated.

Another notable absence from this year’s scorecard was major Australian retailer Coles, which has participated in the past.

New uncertainty for producers is only set to worsen in the wake of the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID and International Labour Affairs Bureau programs. Such cuts ending projects for health, human rights and monitoring risk reversing the much-celebrated progress on reducing child labour in chocolate supply chains.

Thanks to the Chocolate Scorecard, consumers now have detailed information about how companies perform on key sustainability and equity issues.