Do we like them?

Do we like Lindt?

Swiss premium chocolate maker (Lindt & Sprüngli) selling worldwide, including Lindor truffles and Excellence bars.

Our score: 5 out of 10. Mixed. It runs a sizeable cocoa farming programme, but it faces child labour and heavy metals claims. We'd hold off until those are resolved.

Lindt & Sprüngli is the Swiss chocolate maker behind Lindor and the Excellence bars. Cocoa is its biggest ethical risk, so in 2008 it started a Farming Program. A 2022 company release said more than 91,000 farmers took part in 2021, up from 80,000 in 2020.

The company says it has traced 100% of its cocoa beans and that its cocoa sourcing is 100% Rainforest Alliance certified. It also names Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Madagascar and Papua New Guinea as child labour risk countries. It aimed to cover them with child labour monitoring systems by 2025. These are Lindt's own figures.

Even so, Swissinfo reported children working in Lindt's supply chain in Ghana. A child labour lawsuit has since been reported, and a complaint document alleges Lindt has known for two decades that its cocoa involves child labour. Those are allegations. Lindt says it takes child labour very seriously.

In the US, a class action filed in February 2023 followed a Consumer Reports study of heavy metals in dark chocolate. Plaintiffs say Lindt misled buyers and failed to warn them. In 2024 a Brooklyn federal judge ruled the claims could go ahead. Lindt disagrees with all the allegations.

We give it a middling 5. The farming programme is real and sizeable, but the child labour and heavy metals claims are unresolved. We'd want to see how those cases end and what independent checks show before backing it.