Easter Eggs

Easter eggs, whether for children or adults, can be full of hidden surprises, as well as any treats inside them. And some of the surprises may not be so good. This includes child labour, poor workers' rights and palm oil. 

In this guide we highlight some of the major issues associated with chocolate and thus Easter eggs to help you find the ethical alternatives to suit your budget and tastes.

(April 2025: We have removed Conscious Chocolate and Raw Chocolate Company from the guide as they have ceased trading.)

The cocoa crisis

Cocoa can only be grown in tropical countries, and it is almost entirely grown by smallholders. The bulk of production is in West Africa, with Ivory Coast – the biggest exporter - with Ghana is in second place.

But cocoa farmers receive barely any of the chocolate industry’s $100 billion revenue: estimates range between 6% and 11%. Up to 9 out of 10 Ghanaian and Ivory Coast cocoa farmers don’t earn a living income.

Moreover, cocoa farmers’ income is so low that it’s commonplace for them to rely on child labour. 4 in 10 cocoa-growing households in Ivory Coast are estimated to use child labour, and 6 in 10 in Ghana.

After cocoa beans are harvested (64% of the world’s beans are grown in Africa, 15% in South America and 13% in Asia), the majority are exported to international companies for the most profitable production stages: processing, packaging and retail. This means the profits are not felt in the country where the cocoa is grown.

What can consumers do about cocoa sourcing?

Buying Easter eggs from companies that are addressing child labour and wages for cocoa farmers is the most important things consumers can do.

That means only buying from companies that have good cocoa sourcing policies.

How do Easter egg brands score for their cocoa sourcing rating?

We considered a brand’s cocoa sourcing policy to be ‘adequate’ if 100% of their cocoa was:

• Certified by Rainforest Alliance or Fairtrade International
• Better than Fairtrade, including payment of at least the Fairtrade premium
• Value-added-at-source

The following were adequate and did not lose marks for this rating: Cocoa Loco, Divine, MonChoco, Moo Free, Ombar, Paccari, Tony's Chocolonely, The Real Easter Egg.

Brands that didn’t meet these criteria were considered to have an ‘inadequate’ cocoa sourcing policy and lost half a mark in the Workers’ Rights category. The majority of brands’ cocoa sourcing ratings were inadequate, including all the big well-known brands like Cadbury's and Nestle.

If you are wondering why Booja Booja scores highly in the table but is not one of our recommended brands, it's because its cocoa sourcing policy was rated as inadequate.

Value-added-at-source Easter eggs

Value-added-at-source (VAS) chocolate is chocolate that was manufactured in the same country that the cocoa beans were grown in, meaning more profits stay inside the cocoa-growing country.

Benefits of buying VAS chocolate

• Your money adds to the wealth of cocoa-growing countries.
• You’re directly helping micro companies and local job creation.
• You’re helping budding chocolatiers in cocoa-growing countries survive in this European-dominated industry.
• A shorter supply chain, making it easier to trace ingredients back to source and ensure workers’ rights are upheld.

You’re unlikely to see these brands at local stores (except for some local ethical stores): you’ll have to buy online and they’ll ship to you. Many are micro companies on different continents so customer service levels may vary, and we can’t vouch for the reliability of service you’ll get.

MonChoco is a vegan Ivory Coast chocolatier specialising in raw organic cocoa. Shipping chocolate worldwide is carbon-intensive, but its production emissions couldn’t be much lower: it literally crushes the cocoa beans ‘by bike’. 

Paccari chocolate is made in Ecuador, allowing “50% of the wealth to stay in the country of origin and contribute to its development”. Its premium exceeds Fairtrade prices. It works with a UK distributor, so this is a great brand to encourage your local ethical store to get in stock (if it isn’t already).

Fairtrade Easter eggs

Ethical Consumer recommends buying Fairtrade Easter eggs where possible, ensuring that the farmers receive more money for their cocoa. Fairtrade chocolate also has to guarantee that no trafficked labour has been used in the harvesting of the cocoa beans.

Fairtrade certified Easter eggs are marked on the scoretable by an [F]. All the Easter eggs of the following brands are Fairtrade:

• Cocoa Loco
• Ombar
• Tony's Chocolonely
• Co-op own-brand
• Green & Black's (owned by Cadbury, which is owned by Mondelez)
• Divine
• The Real Easter Egg

Rainforest Alliance Easter eggs

All of Plamil's eggs are Rainforest Alliance certified whilst all of Nestle's Easter eggs are certified by the Rainforest Alliance.

Read more about why fair trade certification is important and the different schemes/labels in our special feature on fair trade labels and food.

Corporate sustainability schemes

Most big chocolate companies have their own sustainability schemes, for example Mondelēz (Cadbury)’s ‘Cocoa Life’, Nestlé’s ‘Cocoa Plan’, Hotel Chocolat’s ‘Gentle Farming’, and Mars’ ‘Cocoa for Generations’.

But these schemes tend to cover just a proportion of the company’s cocoa suppliers, as opposed to 100%.

See the Chocolate guide for details about the differences between all these certifications and why we think Value-Added-At-Source and Fairtrade is the best.

The best Easter eggs which avoid palm oil

Chocolate itself does not generally contain palm oil. However, fillings such as biscuit commonly do, so we rated all of the companies on their palm oil policies. 

The following brands get our best rating for palm oil for being palm-oil free companies:

• Monchoco, Paccari, Ombar, Tony's Chocolonely, Divine, Cocoa Loco, Montezuma, Moo Free, The Real Easter Egg, Plamil and Booja Booja 

The following received our worst rating for palm oil: Cadbury, Ferrero Rocher, Galaxy, Green & Black's, H!P, Kinder, Love Cocoa, Maltesers, Mars, Nestlé, and Toblerone.

See our feature on palm oil free chocolate for all the company ratings on this.

Vegan Easter eggs

Whilst many dark chocolate Easter eggs will be vegan, the following brands are made by vegan companies:

• Booja Booja
• Monchoco
• Moo Free
• Ombar
• Paccari
• Plamil

Additionally the following brands sell some vegan Easter eggs: Divine, Cocoa Loco, Montezuma, H!P, LoveCocoa, Hotel Chocolat, Lindt dark bunnies.

Eggsessive packaging: buy a bar of chocolate instead?

Most companies have got rid of the moulded plastic trays to hold the large Easter egg, but the egg itself or the mini eggs or chocolates inside it are likely to be wrapped in aluminium foil. Contents of the eggs may also be packaged in plastic pouches.

Some companies are doing more than others: Tony's Chocolonely and Plamil both use paper pouches for their egg contents, for example. 

The following companies make explicit public statements about being plastic free:

H!P, LoveCocoa, Divine, Ombar, Montezuma, Moo Free, The Real Easter Egg and Cocoa Loco.

Whatever you choose, look out for eggs with the minimum of packaging.

Or, maybe this Easter, you could by-pass the traditional Easter egg and buy a bar of Fairtrade chocolate instead. If you factor in the price per amount of chocolate, this can be a win-win situation.

"Even though many brands have reduced the amount of packaging on their eggs, we still think it's an excessive amount of cardboard, foil and plastic" says Jane Turner from Ethical Consumer. "Many mini eggs, for example, are individually wrapped in tin foil. You'll get much more chocolate for your money - and much less packaging too - by buying a large bar of chocolate instead".

Alternatively, you could of course decide that buying chocolate eggs or even bars of chocolate at Easter is an unnecessary consumerist act. 

How much do ethical Easter eggs cost?

You'll have to pay more for an ethical Easter egg but you'll be paying the real cost and a fair price to the cocoa farmer.. 

There were no weights for the Monchoco products so we could not compare them.

Make your own Easter eggs

You can also cut down on packaging by making your own Easter eggs from bars of ethical chocolate or chocolate chips. See our Chocolate guide for more brands.

Paccari sells chocolate chips and provides instructions.

Or check out the BBC's guide to home made Easter eggs.

Both instructions do however say that you will need egg moulds which appear to be plastic!