If I may humbly beg the Master’s indulgence, I wonder whether any and all foodstuffs produced in the region have potentially dangerous levels of lead. I personally believe that lead poisoning from gasoline would be a widespread environmental problem, rather than one isolated to just chocolate. I don’t know of any other large-scale export of food products from West Africa, but is all the food grown and–presumably–consumed in the region tainted with lead? I also wonder if there is anything in the composition of manufactured chocolate itself that would make it more susceptible to lead poisoning than other foods.
Indeed. My favorite coffee is Ethiopian. Is there a greater level of lead in that? My favorite chocolate is Russian, but considering the blatant lack of chocolate farms on the Ukrainian step, I figure they are importing it from somewhere. I have never noticed “Lead Content” on the nutritional information stickers on the food I buy so I wonder if the FDA tracks this information and, if so, if there a way I can get to it.