Home & Garden|THERE'S SOME SWEET NEWS FOR LOVERS OF CANDY BARS
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By Bryan Miller
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August 25, 1982
,
Section C, Page
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FOR Americans with a sweet tooth for candy bars, 1982 has been a very good year. Fierce competition in the candy industry combined with moderation in sugar and cocoa prices has reversed a trend that caused bars to shrink almost to record low weights in 1980. A Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar, for example, weighed only 1.05 ounces in 1980 and cost 25 cents; today it weighs nearly 1.5 ounces and costs 30 cents, a price decrease of 60 cents a pound.
Other major candy manufacturers, such as M & M/ Mars, which announced a 10 percent weight increase in its bars last month, and Peter Paul Cadbury have experienced similar fluctuations and today their products are at their highest weights in years.
''Some of the biggest candy bars ever are being sold today and, considering the price, they are a real value,'' said James Echeandia, a candy industry analyst who is executive vice president of the American Consulting Corporation in Orlando, Fla.
While all this may be sweet news to candy lovers, it doesn't excite the dentists and doctors who have been urging Americans to cut down on sugar in the diet from all sources.
''The main thing with candy is not the amount of sugar it introduces into the diet - that is not an important percentage,'' said Dr. Sheldon Reiser, laboratory chief of carbohydrate nutrition at the United States Department of Agriculture's Human Nutrition Research Center in Beltsville, Md. ''It is the cavity-causing property of candies that stick to your teeth, such as caramel.''
The candy industry is quick to defend itself by citing percentages. The National Confectioners Association notes that of the slightly less than 100 pounds of sucrose consumed annually per capita in the United States, candy accounts for less than 8 percent. The rest comes from such sources as cakes and pies, processed foods of all sorts, soda, cookies and the like. Americans consumed about 16 pounds of candy per capita (chewing gum is not included) in 1981, according to the United States Commerce Department. That is down almost three pounds from a decade ago.
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