Anyone ever notice that chocolate bars in Canada taste different from chocolate bars in the US? I have no idea why this is.
-----Original Message----- >From: "Thomas Allen Heald, Esquire" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sent: Oct 26, 2008 11:14 PM >To: [email protected] >Subject: [FOODPOOL] Cocoa Butter > > >http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5689239 > >Chocolate Lovers Pained by Candy Changes >More 'Chocolate' Candy Bars Now Include Vegetable Oils Instead of Pricey >Cocoa Butter >By ALICE GOMSTYN >ABC NEWS Business Unit > >For years, Sharon Leitner's candy bar of choice was Take 5. > >"I liked that it was a combination of different flavors," the Cincinnati >resident said. "It was salty and sweet, [with] caramel and peanut butter >and chocolate, and it had something for everybody." > >But this past spring, Leitner, 24, noticed a change. > >"It just didn't taste like it used to," she said. The new taste was >"more waxy and artificial." > >A look at the bar's wrapper helped Leitner understand why: cocoa butter >-- which experts say helps give chocolate its smooth, creamy taste -- >wasn't on the candy's ingredients list. > >"Then I started noticing that there were all kinds of other products >that didn't have cocoa butter," she said. > >Changes to the formulations of several candy bars has chocolate lovers >like Leitner buzzing -- and not in a good way. > >Cybele May, the founder of the candy review Web site Candy Blog, said >that in recent years rising cocoa prices have led candy companies like >Hershey's -- the maker of Take 5 and the top chocolate-seller in the >U.S. -- to replace cocoa butter with cheaper vegetable oils. The >ingredients list for Take 5, for instance, now includes "palm, shea, >sunflower and/or safflower oil." > >"They just ruined that," May said of the Take 5 bar. > >Hershey, meanwhile, stands by its products. The company "is committed to >making the world's best chocolate," said spokesman Kirk Saville. > >The Cocoa Question > >While a "handful" of the company's products do include vegetable oils >other than cocoa butter, he said, "we continue to make Hershey's, >Hershey's Kisses, Reese's peanut butter cups with pure milk chocolate as >we have for over a century." > > >Ingredients for Whatchamacallit bars include palm kernel and soybean oil >and may also include sunflower or safflower oil, according to the >candy's wrapper. > > >That defense -- that there are Hershey's products that still contain >pure milk chocolate -- isn't enough for Leitner. > >"To me, shaving out the cocoa butter in the less-popular products kind >of says that if you like Whatchamacallit [candy bars] you're less >deserving of quality ingredients than say, someone who likes Reese's >cups," she said. > >Cocoa Butter > >Cocoa butter is fat derived from cocoa beans. Like other commodities, >cocoa prices have skyrocketed in recent years. In 2006, one metric ton >of African cocoa butter cost less than $4,000. Today, it costs more than >$8,100, according to Judy Ganes, the president of J. Ganes Consulting in >Katonah, New York. > >Ganes, whose company specializes in research on tropical food products, >said that a combination of growing global demand for chocolate and >problems in cocoa-producing countries -- heavy rains in Indonesia and >civil war in the Ivory Coast -- have driven prices to peaks not seen >since the 1970s. > >"It certainly has hurt manufacturers," Ganes said. > >Ingredients: Truth About Food Labels > >In the United States, when a so-called chocolate bar doesn't include >cocoa butter or includes other oils, it can't actually be labeled >chocolate. > >"According to the Food and Drug [Administration's] regulations for >chocolate, cocoa butter is the required fat for chocolate," said Susan >Smith, the spokeswoman for the National Confectioners Association. > > >Take 5 used to be Sharon Leitner's favorite candy bar. But the >Cincinnati resident says that Take 5's current blend of ingredients -- >which, according to the candy's pacakaging, includes "palm, shea, >sunflower and/or saffron oil" -- doesn't please her taste buds. > >In 2006, there was a challenge posed to this standard and to other >standards for U.S. food products. The Grocery Manufacturers Association, >the trade group representing the food, beverage and consumer products >industry, petitioned the FDA to "modernize" its regulations. > >GMA spokesman Brian Kennedy said that the goal of the petition was to >accommodate innovation in the food industry. > >He said that under current regulations, for instance, if food companies >make pasta out of a blend of whole wheat flour and white flour, they >can't officially call it "pasta." > >Made with Chocolate > >A blended product, he said, would probably be more palatable to >consumers than 100 percent whole wheat pasta. But if the new product >isn't called pasta, he said, people won't buy it. > > >This package of Milk Duds includes the label "made with Chocolate & >Caramel." Candy critic Cybele May said that words and phrases such as >"made with chocolate," "chocolatey" and "chocolate candy" are sometimes >used by candymakers to describe candy that doesn't meet the federal >government's standards for chocolate. > > >"When they want to have pasta, they want to purchase something that >actually says pasta," Kennedy said. > >But when the GMA petition came to light, it was its implications for >chocolate that got attention: An appendix to the petition noted that the >changes could allow for manufacturers to use vegetable oils other than >cocoa butter to make chocolate. > >Both consumers and small chocolatiers decried the proposed changes. In >2007, Mars Inc., the No. 2 chocolate-seller in the U.S. and the maker of >M&M's, broke ranks with industry peers and also came out against the >petition. > >Chocolate Wars > >Europe has had its own chocolate wars. In 2000, after years of heated >debate, the European Union struck an agreement allowing for chocolate >products to contain up to five percent of oils other than cocoa butter. > > >"Mr. Goodbar is made with chocolate but is not a chocolate bar," candy >critic Cybele May said. The ingredients list for the bar does include >cocoa butter, but it also includes "palm shea, sunflower and/or >safflower oil." > >To date, the U.S. petition has gone nowhere. > >"FDA will complete the review of this petition in context of the >Center's priorities," FDA spokesman Mike Herndon said in an e-mail to >ABCNews.com. > >'Chocolatey' Goodness? > >Meanwhile, May said that candymakers can skirt the regulations for what >can be labeled chocolate by emblazoning their wrappers with phrases like >"chocolatey," "made with chocolate" and "chocolate candy." > >Hershey's Kissables, she said, are one example. May, who blogged about >Kissables earlier this month, said that when the candy contained cocoa >butter, the candy's wrapper included the phrase "milk chocolate." It's >since been replaced with "chocolate candy." > >On the back of the Kissables wrapper, the vegetable oils used are listed >as "palm, shea, sunflower, and/or safflower oil." > > >There's a difference between the old Hershey's Kissables wrapper (above, >courtesy of www.candyblog.net) and the new one. Candy critic Cybele May >says the new wrapper no longer says "milk chocolate" because the candy's >formula has changed. > > >Such combinations of oils and that "and/or" conjunction can be found on >other candy wrappers too. It gives candy companies the flexibility to >change which ingredients they use when vegetable oil prices fluctuate, >said Barry Swanson, spokesperson for Institute of Food Technologists and >a professor of food science at Washington State University. > >"If one of those fats or oils becomes very expensive, they'll just use >less of it," Swanson said. > >"I think anytime we're looking at increased costs, you're going to find >more, shall we say, creative formulations to try to reduce the cost >involved in producing a product," he said. > >Cocoa Substitutes > >May said that Hershey's isn't the only company that uses substitutes for >cocoa butter. Baby Ruth bars by Nestle -- the third-biggest >chocolate-seller in the U.S. -- once contained "real chocolate" but >haven't had it for a long time, she said. > > >Ingredients for Baby Ruth Miniatures include cocoa but also hydrogenated >palm kernel and coconut oil. > >Nestle also recently introduced a Mexican bar in the United States >called Carlos V. May said that the Mexican version of the bar was made >of chocolate, but the American version is not. > >Attempts to reach Nestle's Mexican branch were unsuccessful. > >Patricia Bowles, the communications manager of Nestle Confections and >Snacks for Nestle's U.S. branch, said that the changes to Baby Ruth's >ingredients took place before Nestle purchased the brand in the 1990s. > >Overall, she said, economic conditions haven't led Nestle to change the >formulas for its products. > >"We are not quick to change something that we know our consumers love," >she said. > >Changing ingredients isn't the only way candymakers and other food >producers cope with rising food costs; they can also change the sizes of >their products and, most noticeably to consumers, they can raise prices. >Both Mars and Hershey announced wholesale price increases earlier this >month. > >Nestle, which also sells bottled water, frozen meals and other food >products, has reported its 2008 profits were bolstered by price >increases for its goods. > > >> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "World News Now Discussion List" group. 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