MOTH THAT LIKES CHOCOLATE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 90, 10 January 1935, Page 2

MOTH THAT LIKES CHOCOLATE

Story in Court WOMAN’S CLAIM FOR DAMAGES Details of the life history of a moth which attacks foodstuffs were given at Marylebone County Court recently, when Mrs. Maisie Elizabeth Chandman, of Elsham Road, Kensington, sued Cadbury Brothers, of Bournville, for £25 damages in respect of alleged personal injuries following the eating of a piece of chocolate which she said contained grubs. Mrs. Chandman said while recovering from an illness in July she sent for a half-pound block of Cadbury’s fruit and nut chocolate. She ate a piece and cut up the remainder. Then she saw five or six “little crawly things” coming out. As a result she was very sick and could eat nothing solid for a ..eek. This affected her nerves and gave her health a decided setback.

Mr. R. A. Wills, for Cadbury Brothers, said the claim raised a question of vital importance to every manufacturer of packed foods. When Mrs. Chandman complained to Cadbury Brothers they denied liability, but offered to pay her out-of-pocket expenses, which she refused. If, in spite of the greatest care and the provision of works which were a model for people all over the world, an accident happened, and a piece of dhocolate became infected, was that negligence? That was the issue. “Human food is subject to attacks by insect pests,” counsel continued.

“One serious source of danger is a small grey moth, like a clothes moth, called ephestia. This moth is very prevalent in a dry, hot summer. It flies by night, and may get into a shop or store, where it lays eggs about the size of a pinhead. "These hatch out into infinitesimally tiny caterpillars, which can easily get through a hole a seven-thousandth of an inch in diameter. “Having a sort of instinct for food, and especially chocolate, they crawl through the smallest cavity, get through packing and silver paper withcut any difficulty, and then eat chocolate, nuts or raisins, and grow and grow until they become a chrysalis. This in time turns into another moth, which goes away and lays eggs, making more trouble for more manufacturers.

“That was the cause of the condition of this chocolate. These creatures can get into it at any stage after packing, but tlie manufacturing process is such that if they were in the material before it is manufactured they Would be destroyed. “When the chocolate leaves the works it is absolutely sterile as far as Insect life is concerned. It is highly improbable that the chocolate was infected at the works. “The company cannot make their packing impervious except by having hermetically sealed tins, which is commercially impracticable.” Mr. A. W. Knapp, Cadbury’s chief chemist, said of nearly 60,000 packets of chocolate sold in July only live were returned

Mr. R. V. Wandsworth, another of Cadbury's chemists, said to put chocolate in sealed tins would put up the price at least twopence a tablet. The ephestia was quite a common moth.

Mr. D. F. Brundrit (for plaintiff) : Is it poisonous?—Not at all. I have eaten many pieces of chocolate infected by the moth without any illeffects.

Mr. Wandsworth added that it was impossible to fasten foil round the eJiocolate in such a way as to keep out insects.

Mr. Thomas Macara, director of research of the Association of Research for the coeoa, coffee and confectionery industries, said he knew of no firm who had taken such elaborate precautions as Cadbury Brothers,- They had been

leaders in the campaign against the ephestia moth. It was not practicable to sell the bars of chocolate jn sealed tins. That would necessitate every woman carrying a tin-opener in her bag. The jury returned a verdict for Cadbury Brothers. Mr. Wills did not ask for costs.