MrBeast has finally responded to the allegations that he used ‘slave labor’ in order to produce Feastables chocolate.
The YouTuber’s chocolate brand has proven to be popular among his fans after MrBeast first launched Feastables back in January 2022.
The content creator, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, faced controversy earlier this year over claims that child slave labor was involved in the making of the chocolate.
A fellow YouTuber who goes by the name of Ahnestly argued that Donaldson was indirectly supporting child labor after suggesting that the cocoa used could be sourced from suppliers that are involved with child labor.
This caused quite a stir online, with fans becoming concerned about the origins of the cocoa in Feastables.
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Now, Donaldson has spoken out after sitting down with fellow YouTuber Oompaville.
In the video, he said: “That one was a crazy one when I woke up and saw those videos claiming I use slave labor which, what's funny, is any of those creators - I'm just going to say it - you could have just literally messaged me and I could have given you the facts.
“But they didn't and so that was a crazy few days like, before I go into how we do ethically source our cocoa and these are just flat out lies.”
He went on to say that he had put out a press release but ‘people still were claiming we use slave labor and just ignored it’.
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When researching for his chocolate company, Donaldson said that he has ‘lived and breathed this’.
He went on to add: “I've visited the farms, I personally put over a thousand hours of my own time into this.
“So, the majority of the world's cocoa comes from west Africa. Feastables, early on, we sourced from Peru, which Peru doesn't have ethical problems.
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“But after we started getting bigger, all roads lead to you having to source from west Africa because that's just where most of the world's cocoa is grown.”
The YouTuber said that he got in touch with Tony’s Chocolonely, who are the gold standard when it comes to ethical cocoa sourcing.
Donaldson continued: “
We actually formed a joint partnership through Tony's Open Chain with Feastables when we were moving over there and this has been a thing well before the controversy, before anyone says, ‘oh it’s only because of controversy’.”
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In the video, Donaldson gave a tell-all interview where he also addressed allegations made by a former employee.