Magnified image of head louse, once commonly dealt with by lindane. But some supermarkets have found or are seeking lindane free chocolate. Co-op's Fair Trade chocolate can be traced directly to the cocoa grower in Ghana and is free of lindane residues. The same assurance cannot be made for the store's other chocolate products but it has committed to withdraw from sale any chocolate product found to contain lindane. The UK's largest supermarket Tesco did not respond to the survey.
Most supermarkets claim that levels of lindane in chocolate are going down.
The last time that chocolate was tested by the government's Working Party on Pesticides Residues in 1998, three quarters of the samples contained residues of lindane, and 20 out of 20 of food industry samples contained lindane. Helen Lynn of Women's Environmental Network said consumers need to make an informed choice before indulging their chocolate habits but currently have little information at their disposal. We call on retailers to make a commitment to work with their suppliers and the chocolate manufacturers to ensure chocolate is both a luxury to work with as well as to eat. Children are vulnerable to pesticides because they play where pesticides are commonly applied and because their central nervous systems are undergoing rapid development. Barbara Dinham of the Pesticides Action Network raised the issue of farmers using lindane.