You are back. Or more correctly, they are only now being noticed so slowly. Because chocolate Santa Clauses have been populating supermarket shelves for quite a while now, hoping consumers will take them home with them. Öko-Test reveals whether this is a good idea.
Before snacking, a bare number. According to Statista, the German confectionery industry produced around 160 million chocolate Santa Clauses in 2021. Perhaps it is because of this quantity that the first of them can already be found on German supermarket shelves at the end of August or beginning of September. If they all gathered there in November or even December, this could lead to housing problems. And nobody should have to stay outside – especially not in the run-up to Christmas.
Öko-Test also wanted to help prevent worse things from happening and packed 23 copies of the seasonal sweets into its bulging sack – including 4 vegan products and 7 made from organic chocolate. At prices from 0.60 euros to 4.49 euros per 100 grams. The price per man was up to 3.59 euros. From there, however, the red hats did not get under an early Christmas tree or on a colorful plate, but in a specialized laboratory.
There the chocolate Santa Clauses were examined for mineral oil components such as MOSH and MOAH and for aluminum – chocolate or cocoa often have high levels of the light metal. For reasons of topicality, the test scheme was limited to these two parameters. Only the mineral oil partial result was evaluated. In addition, the question was asked whether the chocolate figures have become significantly more expensive in the wake of inflation and higher energy prices.
Let’s start with the good news. At the request of the testers, only two providers conceded – Müller
And at least seven chocolate Santa Clauses are only slightly contaminated with mineral oil components and were rated “good”. The cheapest recommended copy in the test, the “Netto Santa Claus In Town Santa Claus Whole Milk”, is available from Netto for 1.19 euros a piece. The organic products “dm organic chocolate Santa Claus, Naturland” (1.95 euros) and “Velcro Santa Claus made of organic whole milk chocolate” (1.99 euros) also scored “good”. But the expensive “Lindt Hello Santa vegan” (3.59 euros – with sunglasses) and the “Milka Santa Claus Alpenmilch” for 1.09 euros also passed the pollutant test with good marks.
It was worse for the “Alnatura milk Santa Claus”, the “Hachez Santa Claus fine milk chocolate”, the “Riegelein Merry Xmas Santa Claus vegan”, the “Wawi Santa Claus Die Extrahelle” and the “Rosengarten Santa Claus vegan”. They were rated “poor” due to heavy contamination with mineral oil components (MOSH). In three of them (Alnatura, Hachez and Wawi) aromatic mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOAH) were also detected. The testers classify this as particularly critical, since some compounds in the substance group are carcinogenic.
