Blog

Non-Toxic Halloween Candy: To Protect Your Health, Be Picky and Choosy

You may have heard by now that CEH has found dangerous levels of lead in some types of plum and ginger candy.  We’ve taken legal action against eight retailers and distributors of plum and ginger candies, urging the companies to take immediate action to get the products off of store shelves. But Halloween is right around the corner, and we still need that sweet fix to satisfy our October 31st candy cravings. That’s why we’re giving you 3 safe, non-toxic, and greener choices for your candy consumption tomorrow.

Buy them for your stash to hand out to your kids and other trick or treaters, or, just munch on them yourself!  Either way, our candy ideas are the best way to protect your kids’ and family’s health and avoid exposure to toxics like lead, GMOs, and artificial food dyes.

1.  Organic, fruit-juice sweetened gummy chews:  You can find these at any health food store or market.  Buying organic gummies will ensure that your candy doesn’t contain GMO beet sugar (used to sweeten many popular Mars bar candies like M&Ms, Snickers, and Reese’s peanut butter cups).

2.  Fair Trade, organic chocolates: There are more and more fair-trade organic chocolate companies popping up every day, so you have more of a selection when choosing a chocolate of this caliber.  Endangered Species chocolates come in bite sized Halloween packs, making them a great choice for handing out to trick-or-treaters, and on top of that, supports a great cause. Theo Chocolates offer a bit more of a mature choice, in interesting flavors like rose, chili and lavender.  Save those for your grown-up snacking!

3.  Organic Lollipops colored with natural food dyes: lollipops that use natural food coloring from vegetable colors, like turmeric, annatto, and purple carrots, give the same brightly colored joy of standard lollipops, without all the nasty health threats like ADHD and behavioral problems linked to artificial food dyes. The Natural Candystore offers a wide array of naturally colored pops.