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MrBeast has opened up about a disturbing discovery he says he made while trying to source cocoa for his Feastables chocolate brand.
Jimmy 'MrBeast' Donaldson has conquered just about everything YouTube has to offer, recently becoming the first creator to pass 500 million subscribers. While it was once a throne that Felix 'PewDiePie' Kjellberg claimed, MrBeast has for many years now dominated the YouTube scene with his wild challenge videos and crazy giveaways, despite many rumouring his follower stats are linked to a dead internet theory.
Alongside his main channel, the 27-year-old has expanded into several business ventures, including his Feastables chocolate range and Amazon competition series Beast Games.
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However, rather than pocketing his profits, Donaldson has spent years pouring the money from his challenge videos and giveaways back into his ventures and philanthropic efforts, whether it's installing water wells across Africa or donating food and meals to refugees.
Now, he has explained how launching his own chocolate company exposed him to a side of the cocoa industry that left him stunned.
Speaking to Joe Rogan on The Joe Rogan Experience, in an X clip that has since racked up nearly 10 million views, MrBeast said he wanted to ensure the cocoa used by Feastables was sourced responsibly.
But according to Donaldson, he quickly found that avoiding child labour in the supply chain was far harder than he expected.
“I asked everyone involved in sourcing cocoa, ‘Is there any way I can pay a premium and not have little kids work on my farm?’ And it literally didn’t exist," the YouTube megastar told Rogan.
MrBeast says he was shocked to learn there was no way to pay extra for child labor free cocoa in West Africa
— _Chase😈 (@Ankara_inc) July 16, 2026
“I asked everyone involved in sourcing cocoa, ‘Is there any way I can pay a premium and not have little kids work on my farm?’ And it literally didn’t exist.”
“I was… pic.twitter.com/bWenKsCuKh
“I was just so mind blown. It was frustrating because not only did it not exist, no one really seemed to even think it needed to exist.”
He explained: “I was like, ‘These are kids. You have no issue making billions of dollars in profit while little kids are working on the farms?’ It was a very weird thing.”
With the bulk of the world's cacao grown in West Africa, most of it is tied to child labour, Donaldson added.
Viewers in the comments rallied around the content creator, praising him for raising the alarming revelation.
"Wow... as if that wasn't even an afterthought for these massive chocolate companies," one wrote. "Bless Mr. Beast for calling these mfers out. I'm gonna try really f***ing hard not to eat chocolate."
Another added: "The fact that a child-labor-free premium literally didn’t exist is the bleakest part."
A third user argued: "The fact that "child labor free" wasn't even an option is horrifying."
