Here at Jade Chocolates, we believe that there’s always room for more chocolate on the chocolate shelf. From time to time, we’ll blog about other chocolate makers as our friends and let you know what’s happening in the chocolate world. The Guittard Company has created a website informing the public on the FDA’s proposal to change the identity of chocolate to include fat substitutes for cocoa butter.
During the chocolate making process, the cocoa bean is manipulated and it’s two components, cocoa butter and chocolate liquor, are separated. The two components are then put back into the ‘chocolate recipe’ in various amounts depending on whether bittersweet or milk chocolate is created. It is combined with sugar, vanilla, lecithin and milk if making milk chocolate. (This is why white chocolate is technically not chocolate since it contains only cocoa butter and not chocolate liquor.)
Cocoa butter is the oil of the cacao bean and has unique qualities that makes chocolate so wonderful. One very important quality is that is has a melting point close to that of our body temperature. Once you put chocolate in your mouth, it immediately starts to melt. This quality will be lost when using fat substitutes. Taste, mouth-feel and smoothness will also be affected. So why is there a proposal to change the definition of chocolate? Cocoa butter is expensive. If manufacturers are allowed to use less expensive fats, it will drive the cost of chocolate down. Consumers would also have a more difficult time distinguishing between chocolate made with 100% cocoa butter and ones with other vegetable fats.
Consumers are not the only people to be affected by this proposal. Small cocoa bean farmers who rely on selling cocoa butter maybe driven out of the market. This can have devastating affects on communities who rely on selling cocoa butter. If you have an opinion on this subject, write to the FDA. Each opinion counts. www.dontmesswithourchocolate.com
