Can Candy Hurt You? : Part 2

by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

(Page 3 of 3)

While chocolate, like most fruits and nuts, comes from trees, the seed of the "chocolate tree," as it's sometimes called, can be spun off in a number of guises. Those derivatives can be further altered in flavor, consistency, and nutritional value through combination with such items as sugars and dairy products. Thus, standards have been devised so that consumers who prefer the creamy lightness of milk chocolate, for instance, to the zestier bite of bittersweet can satisfy their cravings.

To "promote honesty and fair dealing in the interest of consumers" (to quote the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act), FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition has the authority to set standards of identity for just about every processed food, including chocolate. This means that both producers and consumers can know with certainty that milk chocolate, for example, consistently refers to chocolate containing set minimum quantities of both chocolate and milk solids.

What makes milk chocolate different from dark chocolate? All chocolate (as well as cocoa) is derived from the seeds (beans) of the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, native to the American tropics. The heart of the beans, called "nibs," are contained in foot-long pods and are additionally protected by individual outer shells. When finely ground, nibs become "chocolate liquor," consisting of both cocoa solids and cocoa butter, which are separable. Proportions of these constituents used in chocolate products can be important to the consumer (one chocolate form or variety may, for example, contain more fat than another), as well as to the manufacturer (one may be more or less costly than another). These proportions also affect flavor.

FDA standards for cacao products were updated in 1993, and the final amended regulations were published in the May 21, 1993, Federal Register. Those rules are highly technical, down to prescribing analytic techniques and specifying approved processing methods. Specifications for cacao nibs themselves are offered (they may contain "not more than 1.75 percent by weight" of residual shell), as are the definitions of intermediate and end products, including chocolate liquor ("contains not less than 50 percent nor more than 60 percent by weight of cacao fat," among other requirements). There are also standards for breakfast cocoa, sweet chocolate, semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, milk chocolate, skim milk chocolate, and so on.

Most popular, as examination of any candy counter will attest, is milk chocolate, with the semisweet, darker variety a distant second. Milk chocolate's main ingredients, besides the chocolate, are sugar, cocoa butter, and milk; all three may be present in greater quantity than chocolate itself. Semisweet chocolate has a relatively higher proportion of chocolate (a minimum 35 percent chocolate liquor is specified). Both may also contain such optional ingredients as emulsifiers (stabilizers) and flavorings.

And then there's "white chocolate." Or is there? You may think you've eaten something called "white chocolate," but you haven't, at least not in the United States, unless you've recently sampled certain candies now being test-marketed. The test- marketing is taking place under temporary permits which took effect for a 15-month period starting no later than February 1994.

Under those permits, issued by FDA in November 1993, two manufacturers were granted permission to market chocolate that deviates from the present standards for chocolate products. The manufacturers are test-marketing their products on a limited regional basis, to assess consumer acceptance. (The candies otherwise conform to existing chocolate product standards, and all added ingredients — such as sugar, dairy products, flavorings, and preservatives — meet FDA standards; all current labeling regulations apply.) White chocolate, as defined by the permits, contains only the fat (cocoa butter), not the nonfat components (which also contain the color), from the ground cacao nibs; sugar, milk fats, and milk solids are also present in prescribed proportions.

The test products being offered for consumer reaction are Polar Bears, distributed by Ganong Bros. of St. Stephen, New Brunswick, in Canada, and Hershey's Hugs, distributed by Hershey Chocolate of Hershey, Pa.

Will this "chocolate," a pale stepchild to some chocolate lovers, despite its legitimate cacao heritage attain a place in FDA's official list of chocolate varieties? That will depend on agency review of petitions filed by Hershey and by the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and on the reports filed by Ganong and Hershey, which will supplement the petitions with the test- marketing data.

If there isn't any current standard, what's the product you ate awhile back that looked like white chocolate? It was very much like what's being test-marketed, explains Nan Rainey, chief of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition's food standards branch, except that it couldn't properly be called "white chocolate." It might actually have been called "white confectionery," says Rainey, or perhaps been labeled with such a legend as, "This is what Europeans call white chocolate."

Finally, what about candy that contains alcohol, such as liqueur-filled chocolates? That depends mainly on state regulations. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (which applies only to products in interstate commerce, not those produced and sold only within a state) says that alcohol not in excess of one-half of 1 percent by volume derived solely from the use of flavoring extracts is allowed in confectionery. Beyond that, alcohol is deemed an impermissible adulterant except that the rule doesn't apply "if the sale of such confectionery is permitted under the laws of the state in which such confectionery is intended to be offered for sale."

About the Author

www.fda.gov
FDA is A United States government body that oversees medical devices, including contact lenses, intraocular lenses, excimer lasers and eyedrops. In the US, these products must be approved by the FDA before they can be marketed.