Allergy & Heavy Metal Information

At Farmhouse Chocolates, we are a soy-free, corn syrup-free, and GMO-free facility.

We do process ingredients containing the following food allergens:

~Dairy

~Tree nuts (*At this time, we are not using ANY nuts in our recipes, but do store almonds and hazelnuts at the facility.*)

A bit about our process: We stringently adhere to best practices that limit cross contact. For example, when making products, we do so in a particular order, tempering, dipping, and molding any ingredients recognized by the FDA to be common allergens last.

We do not currently process any ingredients containing gluten, soy, or peanuts. This said, we are not a certified gluten-free, soy-free, or peanut-free facility. We may bring personal food containing gluten and/or peanuts into the facility and, though it is not consumed in the same areas as our products are crafted, utensils, plates, etc. touched by these allergens may be washed in the same sinks used to wash utensils and equipment used to create our chocolates (although we wait to wash them after all utensils and equipment have been washed).

Moreover, we are chocolatiers, rather than chocolate makers. This means that we source exceptional chocolate and work with it, rather than processing from the bean. 

The 70% chocolate, 80% Chocolate, and 38% Chocolate are all manufactured in a facility that handles tree nuts, but which comes rated with a fantastically low gluten content of 5 parts per million or less. We consider all of our chocolate products safe for the gluten intolerant. But for those diagnosed with Celiac Disease, we urge caution and due diligence. Moreover, while we have had many customers with tree nut allergies successfully enjoy our chocolate products, we recognize this is a delicate issue and we do not purport to be nut-free. None of our products currently contain any nuts, but we do have nuts stored at the facility.

 Heavy Metals in Chocolate (Good News for Farmhouse Chocolates!)

Here are the maximum allowable dose levels (MADL) set forth by Prop 65 in the U.S. for daily consumption:

Arsenic: max 10 micrograms a day

Cadmium: max 4.1 micrograms a day

Lead: max 0.5 micrograms a day

We are thrilled to give you the analysis results for the batch of 70% organic, fair trade, soy free chocolate we are currently using (last updated 3/6/23). This info is per 3 oz chocolate bar that we make:

0.08 micrograms arsenic (Prop 65's max is 10 micrograms/day)

1.84 micrograms cadmium (Prop 65's max is 4.1 micrograms/day)

0.077 micrograms lead (Prop 65's max is 0.5 micrograms/day...it looks like we're over, but we are actually safe by a whole decimal point if you look again!) 

Heavy Metal Results for Our 3 oz. 80% Chocolate Bar (last updated 3/6/23):

0.068 micrograms arsenic (Prop 65's max is 10 micrograms/day)

2.89 micrograms cadmium (Prop 65's max is 4.1 micrograms/day)

0.034 micrograms lead (Prop 65's max is 0.5 micrograms/day

Eating an entire bar of 70% chocolate from us will still keep you well under the recommendations of Prop 65!  But feel free to not eat the whole thing at once. After all, everything in moderation :) Joking aside, heavy metals may be consumed in other foods you regularly eat, so if you are very concerned, please use these levels to make sure that your total consumption is under Prop 65's max recommended daily levels.

Lastly, you might be wondering how this applies to our truffles and chocolate covered caramels (all of which we craft with our 70% chocolate). Since our chocolate bars are by far the most concentrated form of chocolate per ounce, the caramels and truffles will have even more diluted levels of heavy metals. For example, our 4 piece box of chocolate covered salted caramels has a net weight of 1.85 ounces. So even not considering that this net weight is not entirely dark chocolate, but caramel as well, it is under the 3 ounces of the chocolate bar size, and, thus, under the heavy metal levels of the 3 oz. chocolate bar. Net weight for the 4 piece box of truffles is 1.34 ounces. So, while this is almost entirely chocolate (with just a bit of heavy cream), the levels per box of truffles will be, once again, far under the already exemplary levels of the chocolate bar as illustrated above.

If you have any other questions for us, we are very happy to answer them.