When John Cadbury founded his legendary confectionary firm in 1824, he was selling just three products: tea, coffee and – perhaps more predictably – drinking chocolate. With the help of his brother Benjamin, he grew the business rapidly; by 1885 they were even supplying chocolate to Queen Victoria.

When John Cadbury’s sons took over the business in 1861 it had only 11 employees and was losing money – but the pair turned it around. At the end of the century, inspired by their father’s Quaker ideals, the brothers built the Bournville estate to house the hundreds of workers the company’s now vast factory required and “alleviate the evils of modern, more cramped, living conditions” in the process.

Cadbury’s was just one of a proud tradition of ethical British businesses, including the confectioner Rowntree, Clarks the shoemaker and Wedgewood pottery. Here was a company that provided a quality product to the people, and exercised a social responsibility in doing so.

Sadly, the creation of the still-lively community at Bournville may have been the high point for this historic brand. The first signs of its descent from its origins as a force for social good – the lowermost slopes of which it finally traversed this week – were visible as early as the late 1960s.

10 best Fairtrade food and drink Show all 10 1 /10 10 best Fairtrade food and drink 10 best Fairtrade food and drink {1} Pukka Vanilla Chai: £2.39, tesco.com 10 of Pukka’s teas are Fairtrade certified, including this caffine-free vanilla, made with six ethically-sourced, organically-grown herbs. The stars of the show include warming cinnamon and zingy ginger, to give you a natural lift. 10 best Fairtrade food and drink {2} Grumpy Mule Organic Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Ground Coffee: £3.99, ocado.com There are a lot of Fairtrade coffees on the market but this awardwinning brew is a bit special; a slow roasted, aromatic creation with citrusy notes, ideal for a refreshing breakfast cup. The beans come from small-holder cooperatives where organic farming is the status quo. 10 best Fairtrade food and drink {3} Quinola Pearl & Red Express Organic Quinoa: £2.55, ocado.com Quinoa is a great source of protein. This variety, grown by smallhold farmers in Peru, is delicious in salad and makes for an interesting change from rice or pasta. These handy packs can be eaten cold, or warmed up for a couple of minutes in the microwave. 10 best Fairtrade food and drink {4} GeoMuesli Mixed Berries: £3.90, traidcraftshop.co.uk Do you know where the fruit and nuts in your morning bowl of cereal come from? GeoMuesli pride themselves in using Fairtrade ingredients, including the Chilean and South African raisins and Ugandan banana in this box. 10 best Fairtrade food and drink {5} Makers and Merchants Hello Sailor Chocolate Bar: £2.50, uniqueandunity.co.uk This is not your average bar: the intensely creamy chocolate, with a touch of sea salt, all packaged up in Makers and Merchants’ fun packaging, is a sweet and ethically-sound pressie for a loved one. 10 best Fairtrade food and drink {6} Ben & Jerry’s Satisfy My Bowl: £4.49, tesco.com You might not have realised that Ben & Jerry’s innovate ices are all made using Fairtrade ingredients. This is their newest flavour, celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Bob Marley’s Legend album. The need to know: you get banana ice cream with caramel and cookie swirls, amid chocolatey peace signs. 10 best Fairtrade food and drink {7} Marks & Spencer Peacocktail Sauvignon Blanc: £7.99 a bottle or £47.94 a case of 6, marksandspencer.com Here’s a wine that stands out from the pack; with notes of grapefruit, herbs and hints of lime, it a fresh, aromatic bottle. One that will make you think of summer days, even in dreary February. 10 best Fairtrade food and drink {8} Fairglobe Fairtrade Cranberry Cookies: £1.09, lidl.co.uk (in store only) Lidl have an good Fairtrade offering, including these chocolatey and fruity biscuits with ingredients sourced from farms in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Ghana. We’ve been eating ours with an afternoon cuppa. 10 best Fairtrade food and drink {9} Seriously Nutty Pistachio, Hazelnut and Almond Milk Chocolate: £1.40, waitrose.com Waitrose has recently launched five new Fairtrade chocolate bars, including this creamy, crunchy number made with three types of roasted nuts. 10 best Fairtrade food and drink {10} Cadburys Fairtrade Chocolate Sprinkler: £2.15, tesco.com Cadbury’s Dairy Milk went Fairtrade in 2009, and there are other options to choose from, too. We like this sprinkler for decorating cakes or adding to your coffee – made from ethically-sourced beans, obviously.

In 1969, Cadbury merged with Schweppes. That put an end to its Quaker ideals and social underpinning. It became a business with a single, capitalist motive: selling more confectionary, making more money.

On went the journey towards the symbol of global hyper-capitalist culture it is today. In 1978, a US chocolate magnate, Peter Paul, acquired a 10 per cent share. Its profits outside the UK overtook its British interests. In the late 2000s, jobs were stripped with the closure of a factory in Keynsham. Some of that production moved overseas.

After months of wrangling, in January 2010 Kraft Foods finally bought the firm for £8.40 a share. A great British icon, an important brand in the history and evolution of British business, was no longer British at all. The name persisted, but precious little remained of the company Cadbury himself had created, or the strict business ethics under which he and his two sons worked.

But there was even more change yet to come. When the buyout occurred, Kraft said it would stick to Cadbury’s commitment to using Fairtrade cocoa beans to produce its chocolate. Fairtrade rules mean that cocoa farmers earn a minimum of £1,600 per tonne of cocoa sold. This week, Cadbury confirmed that it was no longer working with Fairtrade, and had instead switched to a new cocoa production partnership known as Cocoa Life – which does not exert the same price rules.

Cadbury has agreed with Fairtrade to keep its logo on the back of their chocolate bars, as a “partner” with the brand. Fairtrade demands that farmers should not be worse off under the new scheme. But this is nevertheless a significant pulling-back from the company’s original commitment.

Cadbury joins its owner Mondelez International's cocoa production partnership known as Cocoa Life

Cadbury is now a subsidiary of an arm of Kraft, or spin-out company, known as Mondelez International. Its chief executive is Irene Rosenfeld. Her remuneration rose by 50 per cent in 2014, to $21m. What the cocoa farmers who work to supply her global operation will earn for their crucial part in her success is now under question.

Other smaller brands under the Cadbury group have had their ethos similarly stripped from them. Green & Blacks was founded as a small, organic brand and was awarded Britain’s first Fairtrade mark. It was bought in 2005 by Cadbury, and subsumed by Mondelez International as part of the Kraft takeover. Its new range of chocolate for the US market will no longer be organic – the first time that the Green & Black’s label had ever used non-organic chocolate since it was founded in 1991.

Perhaps it’s unfair to single out a single brand when the journey Cadbury has taken, from a local family business to global corporate, is one that so many have followed. But it is the very epitome of the destruction of business value in the search for profit at all costs.