Hershey Co. Claims No Harmful Milk In Chocolate Bars

HERSHEY, Pa.--Hershey milk chocolate bars do not contain any radioactively contaminated milk, so chocolate lovers have nothing to fear, a Hershey Foods Corporation official said yesterday.

Health officials feared that the pastures where Hershey cows graze might be contaminated by radioactivity from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. Cows' milk could absorb cancer-causing radioactive material from the grass which the cows eat, the officials added.

However, radiation levels in samples of milk taken in the nuclear plant area ranged from undetectable to far below danger levels, Pennsylvania state officials said.

According to Hershey officials, Hershey factories stopped using the new milk immediately after the accident. The company kept production lines moving by using inventories of partially processed chocolate containing milk received before the accident, they said.