Child labour is not just the chocolate industry’s problem

There’s a dirty secret lurking behind the rich and comforting aroma of a morning coffee, the shine on gold jewellery, and the wafting smoke of a lit cigarette. “There may be a hidden ingredient in the chocolate cake you baked, the candy bars your children sold for their school fund-raiser or that fudge ripple ice cream cone you enjoyed on Saturday afternoon. Slave labor.” Thus began a sensational investigation by journalists from the Knight Ridder news agency that was splashed across newspapers in the United States on June 24, 2001.