Cougar Full Member
That has “urban myth” written all over it.
Well, I definitely remember my mum refusing to eat Terrys chocolate when I was a kid. I haven’t checked with here lately but I imagine her policy remains the same. I have only my parents’ word that she worked for Terrys but I have no reason to doubt them on it.
As for “sweepings”, that could be exaggerated, or it could be that hygiene regulations were poor and even more poorly enforced in the late ’60s that it is true or close to true. At the very least I expect that the chocolate used to coat selection box chocolates is or was some of the lowest quality chocolate they used. After all for those the main point is the filling, not the chocolate.
In the early ’90s I got a job in the meat department of my local supermarket. After my first day on the job I got home and asked my parents never to buy any meat from that shop again. There was nothing as bad as selling meat that had been off the floor, but I suspect that many people who work where food is prepared have similar “seeing how the sausage gets made” moments.