Pop quiz, hot shot: what’s in chocolate?
You’re wrong. You’re just… wrong.
The FDA is looking to redefine what “chocolate” is to support cheaper methods of making it. For chocolate this means removing all cocoa butter (!) and replacing it with vegetable oil. There’s nary a mention of price in the FDA’s statements but the Candyblog spells it all out. It’s a change being driven not by actual folks, but by… big organizations backed by big companies. Doh!
Worse, the FDA implies that you won’t know the difference between this crappy chocolate and real stuff:
Consumer expectations still define the basic nature of a food. There are, however, no generally held consumer expectations today concerning the precise technical elements which commonly recognized, standardized foods are produced. Consumers, therefore, are not likely to have formed expectations as to production methods, aging time, or specific ingredients used for technical improvements, including manufacturing efficiencies.
Ridiculous. Cheap chocolate is just a little different than the good stuff, and anyone who has tried both at some point can tell the difference.
It’s pretty silly that something like this can just be up and redefined. But in that spirit, I’m officially redefining “brussels sprouts” to mean “chocolate” – the good stuff. Eat up!
Posted in Food and Beverage
Monica April 6, 2007, 3:05 pm
I suspect it’ll be partially hydrogenated vegetable oil at that. I wonder if they’ll manage to get high fructose corn syrup in there too!
We should all move to Belgium đŸ™‚
Merle April 7, 2007, 6:03 pm
You say chocolate, I say.. chocolate.
Monica April 16, 2007, 6:15 pm
find the “Don’t Mess With Our Chocolate” webpage, which gives information and a how to help page with a sample letter to the FDA. Comments to the FDA have to be in by April 25th.