GENERAL MILLS

Call on them to be more transparent and clean up their cocoa supply chain!

Forced labour and forced child labour have plagued the cocoa industry in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana — which produce 60% of the world’s cocoa—for decades. Despite promises from the world’s largest chocolate companies to eradicate the problem, evidence reveals that many companies, like General Mills have fallen far short. *

Together with our partners at Freedom United, we are committed to eliminating forced and worst forms of child labour from the cocoa industry. We are also promotion partners in the Chocolate Scorecard and signatory of the Global Call to Action for a Just Cocoa Industry. We are calling on the world’s top chocolate companies, such as General Mills, to take concrete steps to address the gaps in protection and the underlying drivers of child slavery and child labour in the cocoa sector.

The Chocolate Scorecard expert knowledge team has undertaken an extensive examination of General Mills’ Global Responsibility Report and Modern Slavery Statement and has expressed concern over their ongoing lack of transparency regarding its cocoa supply chain.

Participating in the Chocolate Scorecard is one way to provide the transparency consumers need and civil society seeks to make informed decisions about purchasing the company’s products, which include Häagen-Dazs ice creams, Cocoa Puffs and Cookie Crisps cereals, Fiber One products, and Betty Crocker baking goods.

Chocolate should not be on the market unless it is produced ethically and is free from modern slavery.

* https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/our-work/child-forced-labor-tracking/child-labor-cocoa