Aero

Does Aero make ethical and sustainable chocolate? 

Aero is a brand of Nestlé chocolate that appears in The Good Shopping Guide’s Ethical Chocolate Ratings Table. Although Aero has not yet met our ethical benchmark, we hope to see the brand make progress in the future.

Aero and ethical issues

Aero will struggle to achieve Ethical Accreditation with The Good Shopping Guide due to numerous issues, such as its parent company’s use of genetically modified ingredients. Nestlé has openly admitted to using GM crops, and although this is promising in terms of longevity and sustainability of its resources it does arouse some suspicion and concern about what customers are consuming.

Nestlé states on its website (in its FAQs asking whether it uses GM ingredients): Sometimes, yes. We support the responsible use of any innovative, safe technology. We decide whether to use ingredients derived from GMOs at a local level, based on consumer expectations and local regulations. We believe ‘GMO ingredients’ have a potentially important role to play in increasing food production, to support sustainable agriculture and help feed a growing world population. 

Please find out more about the ethical issues faced by the Chocolate sector and see how other brands score in our Ethical Chocolate Ratings Tables.

The history of Aero

The process of creating this distinctive bubbly chocolate was developed by Rowntree in York, England, in 1935. The original Aero was first introduced in 1935, and the Peppermint Aero followed in 1959. In 2008, the old Nestlé York facility on Haxby Road was shut down, and the subsequent year, the £15 million Aero factory, which can produce 183 million chocolate bars annually, was launched. In 2015, the factory produced over one billion KitKats and 200 million Aero bars per year. Nestlé spent more than £1 million on new manufacturing hardware in 2015 to produce the new Aero Mousse bars. To commemorate its 80th anniversary of operation in 2015, York’s Chocolate Story Museum added Aero bar manufacturing demonstrations.

For which criteria does Aero perform poorly? 

Even though Aero ranks highly in some of our research categories there is still a plethora of issues yet to be dealt with by the company. Ethical matters remaining to be addressed by Aero include Animal Welfare, Genetic Modification, availability of Organic products, Public Record Criticisms, Political Donations, and the availability of Fairtrade products.

In what areas does Aero score well for its ethics?

Aero scores a top rating in the Nuclear Power, Fossil Fuels and Armaments categories, due to having no involvement in these industries, either directly or indirectly.

For more information about Aero…

See our Ethical Chocolate Ratings Table to see how Aero compares to other brands. To inquire about assessment by The Good Shopping Guide and Ethical Accreditation for your brand, product, or company, visit our Initial Assessment page. If you want to find out why Ethical Accreditation might be right for your business, see the Benefits of Ethical Accreditation here.