Mars Bar

Is Mars Bar an ethical brand?

First produced in England in 1932, Mars Bar is a chocolate bar consisting of caramel, nougat and milk chocolate manufactured by Mars Inc. Unfortunately, The Good Shopping Guide cannot rate Mars Bar as ethical as it does not have a high enough score on our Ethical Chocolate Ratings Table.

Though Mars Bar has not yet met our ethical benchmark, we hope that in the future it can reach it through some work. Mars Bar can apply for Ethical Accreditation which would give The Good Shopping Guide the opportunity to provide an assessment and make detailed recommendations on how Mars Bar could make ethical improvements.

Our Ethical Chocolate Ratings Table shows how other brands score against Mars Bar and can help you find out more about Ethical Chocolate.

Where does Mars Bar score well for ethics?

Mars Bar receives a top score for its Environmental Report. (Find out more about How We Rate brands by reading through our methodology.) Its parent company, Mars, has a page devoted to a Healthy Planet where it shares details about its goals and targets for water consumption, plastic usage and carbon emissions. Mars Bar also scores well on our Ratings Table by selling vegetarian chocolate. Mars Bar products are not currently suitable for vegans, but we hope that in the future they will introduce vegan chocolate.

Mars Bar additionally receives a top score for Nuclear Power and Armaments due to a lack of negative records.

Where does Mars Bar receive a bottom score? 

Mars Bar receives a bottom score on The Good Shopping Guide’s table for Genetic-Modification. Mars Bar’s parent company Mars says that it thinks that “genetically modified/engineered components are safe.” However, based on our criteria, companies that employ genetically modified ingredients get the lowest score as it is unknown whether they are truly safe to eat. Mars Bar receives a middle score for Fairtrade. Whilst Mars Bar does not currently have any Fairtrade chocolates, other brands owned by Mars such as Maltesers do.

What can Mars Bar do to improve its ethical rating?

The score given to Mars Bar by The Good Shopping Guide is the result of a calculation of multiple ethical criteria. In order to reach our minimum ethical benchmark, improve its score and qualify for Ethical Accreditation, Mars Bar need to work on a few problems. This includes its bottom scores for Genetic Modification, Animal Welfare and its middle score for Fairtrade.

If Mars Bar were to work on these issues, The Good Shopping Guide could offer it Ethical Accreditation for its chocolate and Mars Bar would see its score rise on the Ethical Chocolates Table.

If your ethical chocolate brand, company or product could benefit from getting an ethics and sustainability certification, why not get in touch to find out more about Ethical Accreditation, or fill out our initial assessment form.