wjb: People of all beliefs are entitled to know what they are eating. Even if you don’t agree.

Point taken. “All” being the operative word here.

wjb: Vegetarians should know without having to sift through a list of ingredients which ay not be clear. People with allergies also have a medical reason to know.

I understand this point too, but vegetarians and people with allergies are really a totally different buying sector. Neither—obviously—is religiously motivated.

One of my major concerns is that as somebody totally opposed to halal killing, I’m effectively being forced to consume animal products that have been killed thusly. If you check out the foodstuffs now marked as “halal certified” you’ll be surprised at the number involved.

In particular, dairy products such as yoghurts, cheeses, cream, flavoured milk drinks and icecream, and margarine are invariably thickened with gelling agents or texturisers extracted from animals and certified as halal. As are many soft lollies, jellies and jams, Cadbury chocolate and even Vegemite and some toothpastes!

It should also be borne in mind that Muslims account for less than 1.5% of the Australian population.

As an atheist I demand freedom from religion — just as vehemently as Muslims (and others) demand freedom for their religions.

People of all beliefs are entitled to know what they are eating. Even if you don’t agree. Vegetarians should know without having to sift through a list of ingredients which ay not be clear. People with allergies also have a medical reason to know.

The annoying part, as you point out, is the pandering to ONE particular religion as other religions should have the same right to know what they are eating meets (or doesn’t meet) their beliefs. It’s just information but it should be readily available.

I agree with you on Halal killing methods. Most Australians would not be pleased to know what that involves.

Food labeling in this country is out of whack: I’d like to know where all the “fruit” in cereals and yogurts comes from. You can bet the cartons of fresh strawberries etc are the last thing going into Uncle Tobies cereal even though their tv ad shows the wooden crates arriving fresh and being consumed.

Perhaps that’s what the world has become: consumers. And many companies seem to be happy to put the CON in consumer.

We put up with all the additives in food and you can only wonder at what longterm cost.

wjb: I have no trouble with identifying foods as suitable for people of any religion, allergy or eating preferences.

As a lifelong atheist, I vehemently disagree with manufacturers imprinting anything on their packaging with a specific religious intent, particularly food products marketed to the general public.

If fundamentalist Muslims wish to consume only halal foodstuffs, then it should be up to them to pay for and carry out their due diligence and assess which food products are halal. Why is it that—in a largely secular country like Australia—the major population demographic of non-Muslims kowtow to such a minority religious sect?

And incidentally, I’m also seriously opposed to halal killing in any form in any country because of its horrendously cruel implications for the animals involved.

I’m currently writing to several major foodstuffs manufacturers to voice my displeasure at their use of halal ingredients, but, as you can guess, I’m not having much success.

Why are we Aussies so worried about upsetting these Islamics anyway?

The response I received from the spins doctors indicated they were taking it off now and only going to have this info on their website. Funny how much old” packaging is still on the shelves…

This change may be happening but checking out their website, you see they also talk about Kosher Products but the link says “We do not have any Kosher-certified products, however some of our products are listed in the Mizrachi Kosher Food Bulletin from time to time.”

Funny how they can dedicate time, effort and marketing to Halal but can’t find the time etc to certify the Kosher status.

I have no trouble with identifying foods as suitable for people of any religion, allergy or eating preferences. But there needs to be the same effort put into addressing ALL these needs, not just one group. Then no one could complain about special treatment of one group.

The brand is certainly not the powerhouse it once was. It’s always on special at some supermarket. The recipe, packaging and size change has ruined what once was a great brand.

This should be a lesson on how to treat customers to other companies!

Ash67: E442 emulsifier

It’s a synthetic mixture comprising ammonium salts of phosphorylated glycerides.

Sounds like something you’d kill snails and slugs with.

Imagine my disgust and horror to find not only was the Flake smaller, but it tasted bloody disgusting and left a horrible after-taste which has taken over an hour and several cups of tea to get rid of! The wrapper does list vege oil and E442 emulsifier (don’t know if the emulsifier was in there before). Needless to say I have reinstated my boycott of Cadbury’s chocolate.

It is quite clear that Kraft have no appreciation of what they acquired in their hostile takeover. The love of Cadbury’s came from the wonderful chocolate, the ethics of the company and all round fabulousness of the brand. To mess with any of that was always going to be economic suicide.

I hope their sales figures have dropped so much they are thinking of selling the brand again. Maybe it will be bought by a company that does understand the brand and its iconic nature – preferably an English company.

I also boycott all other Kraft brands on principle now.

So glad you enjoy any chocolate – as a youngun, I also enjoyed all sorts of alcohol. Now sadly, I have been introduced to extremely goood stuff. Same applies to chocolate – enjoy an uneducated palate while you can as it is a great pleasure and extremely cost effective.

However, do watch out for the attitude of branding an individual ‘demented’ rather than looking at all aspects of the picture. Think a bit bigger and in a public health/litigous arena and there are many examples where a collection of ‘demented’ individuals have exposed serious health and ecological threats. After all, on the individual level, you at least want to be safe while scoffing chocolate, right?

as a youngen’ i eat more than my fir share of chocolate, including cadbury. it all tastes fine

What do you mean ‘it all tastes fine’? If you think all chocolate tastes good then something is seriously wrong with your palate!

if you like choc eat it, if u dont, leave it the hell alone, dontt make a blog about it!!!!!!!!!!!

Why not? Some people are passionate about their chocolate, I’m one of them.

as a youngen’ i eat more than my fir share of chocolate, including cadbury. it all tastes fine. if your mouth is burning because you ate a piece of chocolate then u clearly have a demented mouth. if you like choc eat it, if u dont, leave it the hell alone, dontt make a blog about it!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to Cadburys – this week I noticed family blocks on special for $3 each. This is where the marketing of cabdury’s gets interesting. One week you can buy two for $5, the next week you can buy one for $3. What is the normal price then?

Cadbury’s haven’t got one yet, because they are still trying to determine their positioning all over again. Woolies are doing the right thing by selling their excellent Select chocolate for $2 the other week, and the shelves were all empty! A good way to get people to try it, then raise the price back to its normal $2.99. As I mentioned ages ago, Woolies select chocolate has 32% cocoa (Cadburys is only 26%).

Please continue to boycott Cadburys.

According to the “so-called” manager Sherry (not quite sure if that’s the correct spelling) she is apparently the highest person up in terms of position that customers can contact… That’s what she said (this has been recorded). It seems very strange that this level of customer service is accepted at Cadbury. So don’t expect much.

She also said that there were about three people in charge of the phones which once again sounds very strange. That is unless customers enjoy waiting forever to be helped… Must have been some more clever “marketing” advice.

She then accused me of lying and proceeded to state ‘You will not be rein versed’ (recorded) and hang up on me.

I have worked in the telecommunications industry before and this kind of behavior seems completely unacceptable, if Cadbury had any real concern for its customers they would be monitoring employees.

I am never buying from Cadbury again and not just because of the terrible products they sell.

What were the details of the conversation anyway? Oh and if you did want to go public you could always upload it to Youtube or something.

I’d take the tape to one of the current affairs shows. It’s about time this issue was brought back to the public’s attention. The whole palm oil industry needs to be shut down or grown in a sustainable way which doesn’t deforest islands. And the health effects… why are other countries worried about hydrogenated palm oil?

If you want to taste a bad potato chip, try the home brand ones cooked in Palmolein (or something similar). It’s just as bad taste wise as new formula Cadbury seems to taste. There are healthier alternatives but they cost more. It is very bad practice to market to people unable or unwilling to read the labels and work out what they are being sold.

It’s been a few weeks… guess some more bad publicity and we’ll soon have another special price on the chocolate we no longer want.

The last time I emailed them feedback about their new “old” formula, I never even got a response. This is a company putting it’s head in the sand but they don’t realise the world today is a different place where the opinions of the customer matter as much as the money spent on packaging and advertising.

If only they’d come clean last time, admitted their mistake and really reverted to their old formula perhaps they would have regained some credibility.

But sadly that’s not what this is all about. It’s about hoodwinking the public and passing it off as anything but what it really is: profit grab.

Keep up the good fight guys!

I had another conversation with Cadbury today and it didn’t seem possible to me but they out did themselves once again with “excellent” customer service. I have the whole conversation recorded, the “so-called” manager originally gave me the impression that she was willing to be recorded (as Cadbury records you) and then after reminding her half way through the conversation she stated the following words ‘you do know it is illegal to record somebody without their consent?’ it seems to me like the only reason she wouldn’t want to be recorded is if she said something she didn’t want others to hear.

I chose freedom of speech today when standing next to the Cadbury isle in Woolworths today, playing the conversation. Considering going to A current affair with the recording, and would of course post it on this website but I am not sure how to.

I will be following up with more details of our conversation tomorrow

Uh, where do you even begin with something like that lol.

‘Your honor, we’re here today to decide once and for all whether Cadbury chocolate has taken a turn for the worst…’

I recently had an issue with a Pascall product (a Cadbury owned brand) and as written on the side of the pack:

“If this product does not meet your expectations or you have any enquiries, please call consumer services on 1800 250 260 (AUST) or 0800 223 2879 (NZ)”.

I did one better and decided to send an email via Cadbury’s website. I complained about the quality and made sure to let them know that in the unfortunate circumstance that the issue wasn’t resolved it would result in me sharing with others what in my opinion was a very negative incident.

The very next day a representative called me at around 9:00AM in the morning (inside normal working hours for average people) regarding the incident. I feel that this lady was extremely rude to me, she started off with an apology and followed with a few fairly similar comments too Cadbury takes the threat of negative feedback as a very serious allegation and we might have to pass the incident onto their legal department (I was thinking over a block of chocolate?).

She then proceeded to state the following words “Would you like a gift voucher or do you want me to open a case?” It was then that it hit me; it felt like this lady was bullying me out of the right to freedom of speech. I asked her to send me the gift voucher and be done with it.

A week later the gift voucher arrived for the amount of *drum roll*… five dollars!! To me it felt like someone saying… Wow don’t spend it all at once, even though you wasted your time buying our product only to find out that it was absolute rubbish, then one of our representatives was extremely rude to you and now we are trying to offend you even further by placing a five dollar price tag on your time.

Looks to me like Cadbury has no respect for its customers, oh well for every customer lost another ten will go with them. If they decide to “open a court case” it will certainly be on A Current Affair so be watching

At this rate with foods changing their ingredients constantly, chocolate in 50 years time will be nothing but solidified chemical crap wrapped in foil and purple packaging.

Sadly this phenomina has already afflicted a lot of the foods we used to take for granted and you only need to look at all the obese people walking around to guage its popularity.

The only recourse the rest of us have is to contunue to support food producers who don’t give into this ‘make it cheaper with more chemicals’ crap, or to simply make food the good old fashioned way ourselves.