Barry Callebaut supplies chocolate-makers: Salon du Chocolat, Paris, October 2009
Barry Callebaut's chocolate supply samples, Paris Salon du Chocolat, 2009
Zurich / Vevey, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The global economic crisis may have served up stress and more stress to many people, but the Swiss chocolate industry appears to be sailing happily through it: Barry Callebaut sales in 2008-2009 rose 4.1 percent in a world market that contracted by 2 percent last year. The Zurich-based company is the world’s largest supplier of top-quality cocoa and chocolate products. Profits also rose, 18.5 percent for net profits in local currencies, but the strong Swiss franc had a negative impact.The company reported 11 November on its fiscal year, which closed 31 August 2009.
Nestle at the same time has offered chocolate lovers good news from its research laboratory near Vevey: 40 grams of dark chocolate a day, one small square, has been shown in tests to reduce stress levels. The research is published in the Journal of Proteome Research.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – You can stop blaming your boss for your high stress level: it’s just possible your genes are playing havoc with your brain and helping build that pre-holiday case of anxiety you’ve seen before. Researchers at EPFL, the polytechnic institute in Lausanne, working with others in have turned up evidence that the tendency to suffer from stress may be partly genetic in some cases, or “epigenetic” to be precise: due to genes that have been modified. Read more…
