Fact Check

World's Finest Maggots

Published Sept. 29, 2015

Claim:

FACT CHECK:   Does a video show a World's Finest Chocolate bar embedded with maggots?

Claim:   A video shows a World's Finest Chocolate bar embedded with maggots.

  UNDETERMINED

Origins:   On 23 September 2015, Facebook user Tassy Da Silva uploaded a video purportedly showing a World's Finest Chocolate bar infested with maggots:

!!!!!!!WARNING!!!!!!WARNING!!!!!!!WARNING!!!!!!!My child's school is sponsoring a company called "World's Finest...

Posted by Tassy Da Silva on Wednesday, September 23, 2015

While the video certainly does show maggots inside a bar of World's Finest Chocolate, it's unclear how they got there. The video does not show the chocolate bar being unwrapped, and Tassy's video did not provide any details about how the chocolate was stored or where it was purchased.

On 29 September 2015, World's Finest Chocolate responded to the video on Facebook, and in addition to offering an apology to Tassy for the unseemly chocolate, the company noted that they were investigating the incident to find out how this particular batch of chocolate allegedly became infested in maggots:

The quality issues were brought to our attention yesterday morning, and we appreciate all feedback, as we take extreme pride in our product and services. First, we would like to apologize for your experience, as we completely understand the uncomfortable nature of this situation.

Please accept our sincere apology, as we will further investigate this batch of product more thoroughly to understand where an issue may have occurred. We truly appreciate your understanding and support.

World’s Finest Chocolate is committed to providing premium products that deliver consistent quality and superior value to our customers, and have done such for over 75 years. Our facility operates under GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) guidelines which include SQF (Safe Quality Food) and HACCP (Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Point) systems.

While we are extremely confident about the quality of the product we deliver, once the product leaves our facility, it can be exposed to a number of environmental elements that do not provide optimal storage conditions. Like all perishable food products, storage conditions must be ideal to prevent damage or infestation, especially during summer months. We take significant measures and educate all parties to ensure our product delivers safely, and we are confident this is a rare, albeit unfortunate, incident.

If Tassy Da Silva really did find maggots in her box of World's Finest Chocolate, this infestation was likely the result of a shipping or storage issue and not a manufacturing one. It should also be noted that this report is (so far) an isolated incident, and that World's Finest Chocolate has not issued a recall for any of their products.

Last updated:   29 September 2015

Originally published:   29 September 2015

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.