I’ve been following the news that Cadbury UK has recalled one million candy bars following the discovery that they were contaminated with salmonella.

While salmonella is present in many of the foods we eat, they’re usually things like chicken or eggs that, when properly cooked, will often present little risk to healthy people. Chocolate, as a foodstuff that is consumed as is, may be a good vector for spreading the intestinal ailment. While Cadbury maintains that the contamination levels of the chocolate are too low on average, that’s an average and there are some chocolate pieces that are more contaminated than others and it’s impossible to know.

The UK press has been looking into the matter and what’s more startling is the story behind the contamination ... that it went on for four months ... including the Easter candy seasons, so you can be sure that thousands and thousands of chocolate sweets were consumed by little children who are higher risk for salmonella than healthy adults.

Mr Shattock said Cadbury was ?very concerned? about the damage the recall could do to its reputation.

It had been ordered not because any of its products might be a danger to health but to avoid ?confusion? over the increased incidence of the montevideo strain.

He added: ?Our products are perfectly safe to eat and we have no evidence that anyone has been ill from eating them.?

A spokeswoman for the HPA said there had been 45 cases of the ?rare strain? salmonella montevideo over the last four months, compared with just 12 over the same period last year, including a significant rise among children. (link)

The part that has irritated me the most is how the chocolate was contaminated and the amount of time it went on. Apparently the salmonella found its way into the “milk crumb” through a leaking pipe above the production line at the Marlbrook plant, near Leominster. (The factory produces 97,000 tons of milk chocolate crumb every year from milk, sugar and cocoa liquor.) The pipe contained waste water from the system that was used to wash down the equipment. The leak was discovered in January, but Cadbury didn’t fix it right away, or even send anything to a lab until February. (link to article) It’s unclear how long the leak went on, but it’s clear that Cadbury didn’t report the contamination quickly and took their sweet time in issuing the recall for candy that is most likely already consumed (after all, some of it was Easter candy).

For reference, the products recalled are 250g Dairy Milk Turkish, Dairy Milk Caramel and Dairy Milk Mint bars, eight chunk Dairy Milk bars, 1kg Dairy Milk bars, 10p Freddo bars, and 105g Dairy Milk Buttons Easter Eggs. If you’ve bought any of these imported bars, either return them or simply throw them away. Rest assured that the American-produced Cadbury bars are not contaminated as they are produced by Hershey.

It was announced yesterday that Masterfoods plans to cut two lines at its Oak Park, IL factory. The affected lines mean the loss of 16% of the workforce (70 jobs) and they will no longer make the following:

Easter Egg Snickers
Pumpkin Shaped Snickers
Pop’ables - 3 Musketeers, Milky Way, Milky Way Midnight (hey, those sound good), Snickers & Snickers Cruncher

It’s possible that the novelty shapes of Snickers will be made elsewhere, the articles were vague on that, but Mars has mentioned discontinuing the Pop’ables line before (as Hershey’s has also mentioned discontinuing their similar Bites line).

Press release posted at CandyUSA and article in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Here’s a cautionary tale.

I’ve been traveling lately and I haven’t been able to spend as much time with my candy as I’d like. And of course if you don’t care for and tend your candy properly, you can get some nasty surprises when you get home.

Witness what happened to my lovely Root Beer flavored organic candy floss.

Oh, sad day.

It’s deflated.

There was about half left ... and this is what it all boils down to, a scaly residue on the bottom of the tub.

In the future, I’ll need to make sure that the lid is on tightly. Even sadder, the lid of the detestable Cotton Candy flavor is just fine.

I saw this surprising study on my blog aggregator and had to read through it twice to make sure I understood.

I’ve always been a pretty big believer in calories in/calories out as weight management. But this study kinda throws a monkey-wrench in that.

Trans Fat Leads To Weight Gain Even On Same Total Calories, Animal Study Shows

The study, performed by Wake Forest University School of Medicine on animals has found that trans fat consumption increased the girth (belly fat) of the subjects.

The monkeys all were given the same amount of daily calories, with 35 percent of the calories coming from fat. The amount of calories they got should only have been enough to maintain their weight, not increase it, Rudel said. “We believed they couldn’t get obese because we did not give them enough calories to get fat.”

One group of monkeys got 8 percent of their calories from trans fat while the other group received those calories as monounsaturated fat. The researchers said that this amount of trans fat is comparable to people who eat a lot of fried food.
...
Kylie Kavanagh, D.V.M., presented the findings today at the 66th annual Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association in Washington, D.C. She said that over six years, male monkeys fed a western-style diet that contains trans fat had a 7.2 percent increase in body weight, compared to a 1.8 percent increase in monkeys that ate monounsaturated fats, such as olive oil.

I’ve always been the type of person to indulge in real butter instead of margarine, and I don’t eat a lot of fried foods so I never really had a lot of trans fats in my diet. But it’s one of those things where it’s not that hard to make the switch back to unsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated fats once you know what to look for. Well, that’s true when you’re eating stuff with labels - it’s pretty hard when eating out, so don’t be afraid to ask questions about what sorts of oils might be used. When in doubt, eat something else.

The good news is that many candy makers are aware of the backlash against hydrogenated oils and have been reformulating their candies to get rid of them. Hershey has done a pretty good job of this, especially with their new cookies line being trans fat free.

Read more about Trans Fats on Wikipedia.

Check this out ... a couple of months ago I did an email interview with Craig Courtice of the National Post (Canada) for a possible column, then I told him about my upcoming adventures at the All Candy Expo in Chicago and he expanded the column article to a full one that’s the cover of the Avenue section (in Arts & Life in the physical paper) after we did a long phone interview while I was at the Expo.

Sweet Success
Cybele May, the creator of Candy Blog, lives by the philosophy ‘lower your expectations, broaden your horizons.’ In following this mantra, she’s created a new life for herself
by Craig Courtice, National Post

If you’re able to get a hold of the physical paper, let me know how it looks, they used a bunch of my photos and I haven’t seen it yet!

UPDATE: Here’s a preview of what the physical paper looks like! Shazaam!

My husband happened to be in Chicago at the same time I was (it’s a long story) and stayed at the Hyatt at McCormick place.

What was cool about it was that all the keys cards looked like this: Hershey’s Special Dark bars.

I don’t know if the other hotels had other candy-themed key cards. But I’d love to have a Lemonhead hotel key!

It’s the little touches, right?

Just in case you’ve never been to a trade show, this is kinda what my days were like:

I’d get up in the morning about 90 minutes before I was due at the convention center, get showered and dressed and check my internet thingies.

Then I’d walk over to the hotel nearby where the free shuttle would take me to the convention center. I was kinda cheap (it was my dime, after all) and got a nice hotel near the Hilton and saved myself about $45 a night. And by being close enough to the shuttle to walk, I saved myself some taxi fares too. (I did take a taxi on Tuesday morning because it was too early for a shuttle. It cost me $8 with tip.)

Once at the convention center, the first day I had to register. Registration is usually a large ordeal, kind of like checking in at the airport without the metal detectors. Because I was press I had a separate process that meant that I reported to the press room and showed them something to prove that I really was press (a print-out of a blog page with my name on it and a business card I had made).

After I was credentialed, I got a name badge. Mine was green, which meant press. The pink ones meant exhibitor ... white was buyers. I can’t remember the other versions, but some people had “flair” on their badges depending on sponsorships and associations. The green badge was not all access. I could get onto the show floor, the seminars and the shuttles. I wasn’t allowed on the “Very Important Buyers” boat, which was a catered boat that was moored at the edge of the convention center were buyers could go and get sated.

First thing in the morning I usually attended a seminar, usually at 8 AM. They had continental breakfast! Each seminar was sponsored, and to remind you who sponsored them, there’d be a bowl of candy at each table in the small ballroom where they held the lectures that had their candy in it. I picked up some bags of Coffee Rio this way and ate some yummy snack-sized Take 5 another day.

Then there was the show floor. It was huge, as you can imagine. You can see a map of it here.  The main exhibit hall is 300,000 square feet. Just walking the perimeter of that space is more than a third of a mile ... now imagine that there are ten rows ... seeing everything is a lot of work. Over 400 exhibitors and two and a half days to do it all.

Next year I’ll wear a pedometer!

After my seminar I’d visit the press room to check my email and blog if I could. There were internet kiosks out on the show floor, but they didn’t have chairs. They also didn’t have free coffee and water.

Out on the floor it was a little overwhelming the first day or so. There were a lot of booths and a lot of stuff being promoted. Things didn’t look like I imagined them and things that were heralded in press releases weren’t always displayed front and center.

The first day I didn’t have a list, per se, of things I wanted to see. I just took it all in. I did have a list of people to connect with though, as this is the most popular day of the show, so I made a point of hooking up with them.

Out on the show floor you’re not supposed to bring your own bags, so they issue you a small gift bag to pack your samples and literature in. I tried to be conservative in actually eating out on the floor, only sampling things that didn’t have take-away samples, and of course taking advantage of any nuts offered for more lasting energy. My bag, however, was usually stuffed to the gills within the first two hours.

Grabbing a bite to eat at the convention center, if you’re not a buyer entitled to the catered boat, was a little tricky. There were a few vendors on site in the “food court” out on the main patio section by Lake Michigan. There were other places to eat, but walking was an issue after a while. Just walking up and down the aisles, to and from the press room and of course to and from the hotel shuttle meant I was probably clocking about 6-8 miles a day.

So I skipped most meals. I did bring along some Lara Bars, which are basically a compressed bar of dates and almonds, which is a pretty good meal replacement for me.

I really didn’t eat that much candy while at the Expo, which is kind of surprising. I was always saving my calories for something better, and then when I’d find something I was really interested in, I’d put it in my bag to bring home.

After the Expo floor closed at 5PM each day, I’d head back to my hotel. The shuttles were absolutely fabulous. Nice busses equipped with little buckets of candy. The Hilton was really close to McCormick, so it was usually about 15 minutes from door to door. What was also great was talking to folks on the bus. Everyone was so friendly and happy to discuss whatever they were there for, it was a great way to make contacts. I got to talk to both brokers and marketing people. I don’t know if I would have made any inroads with Just Born without having a fab chat on the bus with one of their Chicago-based staff.

Back at the hotel I’d put my feet up and do a little blogging and answer some emails and make phone calls. The wireless internet at the hotel made it easy for me to sit on the bed with my laptop and write or sit at the spacious desk with real desk chair (it’s important!). Every night had a different event, most starting after 7PM. Monday was a reception at the Hyatt by the river, Tuesday was the party hosted by Ferrara Pan at Fulton’s and Wednesday was the House of Blues thing. I’d usually have someone to hook up with at those things, which is good because I am kinda shy when I’m solo. I’d try to grab something resembling dinner at these things, but never really succeeded at any of them.

When the festivities ended, I’d walk back to my hotel. Usually not more than a mile and half and because of the time difference between Chicago and Los Angeles, it was a chance to talk to my husband about our respective days.

Each evening meant that I’d have a new set of contacts to catch up with on the floor the next day or follow up on email when I got home.

If I’ve learned anything from all of this, it’s to travel light on the show floor (which I did, and I’m grateful for) and wear sensible shoes (which I did, for the most part). The one thing I can improve is my sleep. I was really, really tired. Next time I’ll try coming in a day early to get my bearings. And I probably needed to eat more regularly. Well, that’s the constant struggle in my life!

Next year’s Expo will be a little different. They’ve pushed it to September 2007 and it will be larger than ever, this time incorporating snack foods (chips, savory nuts, jerky). They’re still calling it All Candy Expo.

So yesterday was purely organizational. I spent quite a bit of time finessing my little baggies of different product samples and then I input them all into a spreadsheet.

Here are the results:

1. Adams Brooks: Coffee Rio (original roast)
2. Adams Brooks: P.Nuttles (Butter Toffee Peanuts)
3. Albert: Frunas (Tropical Citrus, Tamarind with Chile, Mango Chile)
4. American Licorice Company: Sour Punch Straws (Citrus Blast - full sized package)
5. American Licorice Company: Sour Punch Straws (unmarked - green, blue, red & lite red)
6. Anthon Berg: Marzipan (Strawberry in Champagne/Apricot in Brandy)
7. Anthon Berg: Liquor Bottles (Drambuie, Ricard (Pastis), Stoli Vanil, Cointreau, Stoli Orang, Malibu Caribbean White Rum with Coconut, Jack Daniels - only Jack Daniels will be sold in solo, the rest will be mixed boxes)
8. Anthon Berg: Coffees (Vanilla Frappe, Cappucino, Irish Cream Coffee, Espresso, Toffee Macchiato)
9. Arcor: Garfield’s Chocobites (chocolate and peanut (real chocolate) - made in Argentina)
10. Au’Some: Florida’s Naturals (Blueberry & Strawberry)
11. Au’Some: Fruit Juice Sour String (Orange)
12. Au’Some: Bubble Tape Message Maker
13. Bebeto: Sour Blast (Orange - Portakalli Uzuuun Seker)
14. Belly Washers: Water Pop with Sour Candy Top (green apple - artificial sweeteners)
15. Bimbo Snacks: Juicee Gummee
16. Botticelli: Choco-Omeg (Raspberry, Choco-Cal, Choco-Mind)
17. Brown & Haley: Honey Roasted Peanut Roca
18. Bubble Chocolate: Bubble Chocolate (Milk Chocolate, Coffee Milk Chocolate, 60% Dark Chocolate)
19. Cadbury Adams: Sour Patch Kids
20. Canditi: Zoom (Spearmint, Betelmint, Mint - “tiny gum”, sugar sweetened)
21. Canditi: Pan (hard candies)
22. Cap Candy: Foaming at the Mouth Chandy (Sour Sudsy Candy)
23. Cap Candy: Bug Factor Lollipop
24. Ce De Candy: Smarties Bubble Gum
25. Charms: Andes Peppermint Crunch
26. Chocovic: Jade (Milk Chocolate (40% cocoa) - from EFG Food Solutions)
27. Country Fresh Food & Confections: Jim Beam Chocolate Bourbon Fudge (tastes like bubble gum)
28. Dare: RealFruit Gummies (Fruit Medley, Tropical Fruits, Orchard Fruits - Canadian)
29. DeFranco’s: Espresso Secrets (terrible - like tar in the middle)
30. Dulces Ravi: Sandy Moy
31. Dulces Ravi: Chango Mango
32. Espeez: Gold Mine Nugget Bubble Gum
33. Family Sweets Candy Co.: Toxic Waste (Watermelon, Black Cherry, Apple)
34. Farley Sathers: Super Bubble Blast - Liquid Center
35. Farley Sathers: Now & Laters
36. Ferrara Pan: Cote d’Or Mignonnette (milk chocolate)
37. Ferrero: Tic Tac Bold! (Mint & Fruit)
38. Ford Gum: Rolly Pop Roller Candy (Grape - made in mexico)
39. Frankford Candy & Chocolate: Nick Candy Sour Buddies (Spongebob & Fairly OddParents Fruit Gummies - made in China)
40. Georgia’s Choice: Malted Milk Balls?
41. Ghirardelli: Intense Dark Bars (Twilight Delight 72% Cacao)
42. Ghirardelli: 60% Cacao Dark Chocolate with Caramel
43. Gimbal’s: Jelly Beans
44. Glee: Peppermint Rainforest Chicle
45. Golden BonBon: Nougat (Orange, Maple, Almond, Cranberry - Canadian)
46. Golden Boronia: Nougat Crunchy (Peppermint Crunchy, Original Crunchy & Cappuccino Crunchy)
47. Golden Boronia: Soft Nougat (Apricot, Original, Green Tea, Cappuccino)
48. Gudu: Gudu Pop
49. Hawaiian Host: Whole and Halves Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts (two different packages (milk & dark?))
50. Hershey’s: Ice Breakers Liquid Ice (Cool Mint, Cinnamon - neotame & sucralose)
51. Hershey’s: Peanut Butter Kisses (no longer a limited edition)
52. Hleks: Shoogy Boom (Lemon, Bubble Gum, Chocolate - made in Turkey)
53. Hleks: Crayola Dippin’ Lickin’ Poppin’ Candy (Blue Raspberry)
54. Impact Confections: Warheads Juniors (Black Cherry, Apple, Lemon, Watermelon, Blue Raspberry)
55. Indy: Obleas San Pablo Milk Candy Wafers
56. Indy: Palanqueta San Pablo (peanut brittle)
57. Indy: Dulces Vero Cupido (Strawberry-Cherry Heart Shaped Lolly)
58. Indy: Antorcha (Cherry flavored lollypop covered with spicy and sour candy)
59. Indy: Cerillos
60. Indy: Gloria’s Aztecas
61. Jelly Belly: Soda Pop Shoppe (assorted soda flavors - brand tie-in with Crush)
62. Jelly Belly: Smoothie Blend (Cherry Passion Fruit, Mandarin Orange Mango, Mixed Berry, Pineapple Pear & Strawberry Banana)
63. Jelly Belly: Sport Beans (Fruit Punch)
64. Joyva: Jell Ring (Raspberry)
65. Judson-Atkinson Candies: Assorted Sours (Cherry, Green Apple, Tangerine, Grape, Lemon)
66. Just Born: Peeps Cocoa (Bunnies)
67. Just Born: Mike and Ike Tangy Twister
68. Just Born: Mike and Ike Original Fruits
69. Kimmie Candy Company: Sunbursts (candy coated, cocoa sunflower seeds)
70. Kimmie Candy Company: ChocoRocks (candy coated chocolate compound)
71. Kimmie Candy Company: Baby Dino Eggs (candy coated choco peanuts)
72. Kimmie Candy Company: Gold Nuggets - Candy Coated ChocoRocks (candy coated chocolate compound in a little muslin bag)
73. KoKo’s Confectionery: Candy Logs
74. Lindt: Lindor Truffles (Extra Dark & two unknowns)
75. Marengo: Tropical (hard candy) (Lulo, Pine (pineapple), Mango)
76. Mars: Snickers Xtreme (limited edition)
77. Melville Candy: Red Dolphin Pop (barley sugar)
78. Necco: Mint Julep
79. Oak Leaf: Sixlets
80. Palmer Candy Co.: Twin Bing
81. Perfetti Van Melle: Airheads Xtremes Sweetly Sour Rolls (Strawberry)
82. Pirouline: Chocolate Dipped Pirouline (Hazelnut, Double Chocolate)
83. Pop Rocks: Pop Rocks on a Roll (Strawberry)
84. Pop Rocks: Soda Pop Rocks (Cherry Cola - in a collector’s lunch tin)
85. Pop Rocks: Pop Rocks Color Explosion (Blue Strawberry)
86. Pop Rocks: Chocolate Pop Rocks
87. Promotion in Motion: Welch’s Fruit Snacks (Fruit Punch & Mixed Fruit - vitamin C & E)
88. Promotion in Motion: Sour Jacks (Mixed, Sour Apple & Watermelon)
89. Promotion in Motion: Fisher Milk Chocolate Covered Peanuts
90. Promotion in Motion: Sun-Maid Milk Chocolate Raisins
91. Promotion in Motion: Toggi (L’Orange Chocolate Wafers, Chocolate)
92. Propelix: Pika Yamba (Pulpa Picante - chili flavored liquid candy)
93. Pucker Powder: Twisted Tarts (machine made flavor tarts)
94. Rito Mints: Ghost Talk (fruit flavors - Canadian)
95. Ritter Sport: Dark Chocolate with Whole Hazelnuts
96. Ritter Sport: Feinherb ala Mousse au Chocolat
97. Ritter Sport: Fine Extra Dark Chocolate 71% Cocoa
98. Sconza: Organic Toffee Cashews & Peanuts
99. Sonric’s: Rockaleta (Shoks - chili flavored mango gum)
100. Sonric’s: Rockaleta Dark (Tamarind lolly)
101. Sonric’s: Gudu Pop (Multisabor, con Chile)
102. Sunflower Food & Spice Company: Sunny Seed Drops ((not real chocolate + vanillin but says all natural))
103. Swiss Delice: Chocobloc Lait (Milk chocolate with almond-honey nougat - like Toblerone - don’t know where this came from)
104. Too Tarts: Dream Chews (fruit & honey)
105. Tootsie Rolle: Mini Chews (meh)
106. Topps: Bazooka
107. Trefin: Hard Candies
108. Unican: Dreamers (Banana, Strawberry, Chocolate - high calcium content)
109. Value Quest Foods: Gazillions (pineapple)
110. Value Quest Foods: Natural Sweets (fruit gummies)
111. Werther’s: Chocolates (Hazelnuts & Almonds)
112. Werther’s: Merci (Coffee & Cream, Dark Cream - chocolate sticks)
113. Yummy Earth: Organic Lollipops (Pomegranate, Watermelon, lemon, orange, berry)

Obviously it’s going to take me a while to get through these, and not all will warrant full reviews. Most are products I’ve never had before (or at least flavors).

These are in alphabetical order by company, I don’t really have a plan yet. As I was putting the list together, I was noticing trends of things, like real-fruit-juice gummis and new delivery devices for candy. If you have something that you’re curious about and want me to move to the top of the list, speak up.

As for my plan, I’m going to do as much chocolate now, since the weather is getting warmer and I fear the loss of much of it because of the heat in SoCal (I don’t have air conditioning).