The ~Belgian~ royal decree of the 18th November 1894 established
on the basis of the law for articles of consumption, August 4th 1890,
and article 454 to 457, 500 to 503, and 561 of the penal code book runs
(according to the “Moniteur Belge” of the 3rd and 4th December, 1894,
as follows:
Art. 1. It is illegal to sell, expose or hold in possession for sale,
or to transmit, any other product as “all cocoa” than the fruit of the
cacao tree, raw and prepared by roasting, hulling and grinding with or
without addition of spices, and finally moulded into tablets or reduced
to powder form.
It is permissible to sell, expose or have in possession for sale, or
to transmit such cacao as has suffered a loss of butter by expressing,
provided that the amount of this ingredient is not diminished by more
than 20 % of the whole, under the designation “cocoa or cocoa powder”;
and again under the designation “alkalinised cacao” (cacao alcalinisé)
such as has had its alkali content increased in special treatment by
not more than 3% of the total weight. The declaration “alkalinised” is
not, if a matter of mere possession or transmittance in export, to be
considered as necessary.
Cacao which has been prepared other than as above described may only
be sold, exposed or held in possession for sale, or transmitted, under
a special label which declares this special manner of preparation next
to the word “cacao” or under a label that does not contain the word
“cacao” at all.
The word “alkalinised” or any other words which indicate alterations or
additions in the natural composition of the cacao must be introduced on
the label in distinct and similar type to the word “cacao
Cacao in which the proportion of alkali amounts to more than 3% is
regarded as injurious, and the sale, having and holding in possession
or despatch of same for sale is illegal.
Art. 2. It is illegal to sell, have in possession or expose for sale,
or to transmit any product whatever, under the designation “chocolate”,
that is not manufactured exclusively from shelled cacao, and that
in a minimum proportion of 35%, and ordinary sugar, with or without
admixture of spices.
Products which though containing the requisite 35% of shelled cacao
are also made of other substances than those above signified may only
be sold, held in possession, exposed or transmitted for sale under a
label that clearly describes the nature of such ingredients next to
the word “chocolate” and in the same type, or under a label that does
not contain the word “Chocolate” at all. In the case indicated by
impressing them on each separate tablet.
Products which contain less than 35% of cacao may only be sold, held
in possession, exposed, or transmitted for sale under the designation
“cacao bonbons” or some similar description, from which the word
chocolate has been rigidly excluded.
Art. 3. Entries of the labels prescribed for the products of irregular
composition in articles 1 and 2 must be made on the invoices despatched
with the goods.
Art. 4. The box, case or wrapper etc. containing cacao or chocolate
which is sold, exposed, held in possession or transmitted for sale must
bear the name and address of the manufacturer or seller, or at least
some regular and authorised trade mark.
Art. 5. The articles of this decree, as far as they refer to chocolate,
are only applicable to ordinary chocolates in tablet, block, spherical
or powder form, not however to cream and various sugar confections in
chocolates (such as pralinés, pastilles etc.).
Art. 6. Any infringement of the articles of this decree will incur a
fine in accordance with the code of fines issued on Aug. 4th 1890, over
and above the ordinary penalties.
Art. 7. Our Board of Trade and Agriculture is hereby entrusted with the
carrying out of this decree, which shall come into force on April 1st
1895.
2. Roumania.
The royal enactment of this land respecting the health supervision of
foods and drinks and the trade in foods and drinks, articles 154, 155,
156 and 157 of the Health act of the 11th September, 1895, says the
“Buletinul directiunei generale a serviciului sanitar” 1895, No. 18 and
19, pages 277 et seq.
No. XIII, Article 137.
No product may be sold, exposed or held in possession or transmitted
for sale, under the designation cacao, other than the seed of the fruit
obtained from the tree “Theobroma Cacao It may be brought on the market
raw, roasted, or powdered after roasting.
Under the designation “Cocoa powder, defatted”, such may be sold as
has suffered loss of butter by extraction, provided that there still
remains a minimum 22% of cacao butter in the product. As disintegrated
cacao may be sold such powder as does not contain more than a maximum
2% of sodium or potassium carbonate.
Art. 138. It is illegal to sell or expose for sale artificially dyed
and pulverised cacao, and also such as has been mixed with starch
meals, foreign fats or any other foreign ingredients. It is in like
manner illegal to mix cocoa powder with shells, and the former may not
contain more than a maximum 15% of powdered shell.[223]
Art. 139. Under the designation “Chocolate”, only the foodstuff
prepared from a mixture of roasted and powdered bean and sugar, with or
without admixture of aromatic ingredients, as vanilla, cinnamon and the
like substances, may be sold and exposed for sale.
Art. 140. The manufacture and sale, as also the exposure for sale of
chocolate from cacao that does not answer the several demands of this
decree, articles 137 and 138, as well as of chocolate that is mixed
with starch, meals, mineral and artificially coloured substance, is
illegal.
3. Switzerland.
The association of analytic chemists in this country have issued a
book entitled “The Swiss Book of Nutritious Stuffs and Articles of
Sustenance”, where the methods and standards prevailing in research
work connected with such substances are finally established for
Switzerland. This work served as a guide as regards articles of
sustenance up to the time when the Swiss food act came into force, and
we accordingly annex a few extracts from it, dealing with our subject,
cacao preparations.
Definitions.
1. Cacao mass is obtained by grinding and moulding the shelled and
roasted cacao bean, without any admixture whatever, or extraction of
butter.
2. Cacao ~freed of oil~ is cacao that has been reduced by from 20%
to 35% as regards its butter contents by means of pressure under heat.
3. ~Disintegrated cacao.~ The roasted beans are treated with
carbonic acid alkalis (generally potassium) subjected to pressure
under ammonia or steam, and so the cellular tissue of the albuminous
substance disintegrated or broken up and converted into a soluble
modification (peptone and alkalinous albuminate).[224] The so treated
beans are next dried, reduced, defatted and pulverised.
4. ~Chocolate~ is the description of a mixture of cacao and
sugar which comes into commerce either moulded or in powder form. The
percentage of sugar amounts to between 40 and 70%. Admixture of other
substances than cacao, sugar and the usual spices must be regarded as
adulterations.[225]
5. ~Chocolate~ and ~cacao~ (powdered or moulded) may be
aromatised with the following substances: vanilla, benjamin gum, tolu
and peru balsam, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.
6. ~Chocolate fondants~ are chocolates with an unusually large
proportion of sugar and fatty contents.
7. ~Milk chocolate~ is a preparation prepared from milk, sugar
and cacao. It may not contain the preserving materials dis-allowed for
milk, such as boracic acid, borax, formic aldehyde and derivatives of
the aromatic series. It comes into commerce in powder form.
8. ~Covering~ or ~coating~ material is a mixture of cacao,
sugar, spices, with almonds and hazel nuts. This preparation is almost
exclusively employed for bonbon confectionery.
9. ~Medicinal Chocolate~ is a chocolate or cacao preparation
containing additions of medicaments.
Tests and Definitions always to be applied.
1. Touch test.
2. Reaction.
3. Microscopical examination.
4. Examination of the fat.
5. Estimation of cacao butter.
6. Determination of sugar.
7. Determination of ash.
Tests and Definitions eventually necessary.
8. Determination of moisture.
9. Determination of theobromine.
10. Determination of starch.
11. Determination of cellulose.
Guide to Classification:
Unripe, badly fermented cacao beans and those which have been
attacked by insects or mould or have suffered during transport from
the influence of salt-water, should never be used for manufacturing
purposes.
Goods prepared from such beans have an unpleasant taste, which it
is impossible to get rid of by the various operations in the course
of manufacture. The use of all such beans is to be regarded as
adulteration. The tests to be applied for determining them are tasting,
microscopical examination and perhaps the estimation of the common salt
contained in them.
All good chocolates are of a fine brown colour. Grey-coloured or
spotted chocolate are objectionable. Spots or the grey colour alluded
to may be caused either by damp or heat. At an ordinary temperature the
fracture of the chocolate is hard, glassy and even. The quality of the
fracture constitutes an excellent basis in judging of the manner and
methods employed in working up the raw material.
Cacao and chocolate that become thick and pulpy on boiling are in all
probability adulterated with meal, starch, dextrine or resin.
The following are to be considered as adulterations:
1. Admixtures of cacao or other shells, and sawdust.
2. Admixtures of foreign starch, meals, castania and resin.
3. Admixtures of mineral substances like ochre, clay and sand.
4. The substitution of cheaper fats, such as beef and pork dripping,
almond, poppy seed, cocoa-nut and vaseline oils.
Limitations.
1. For ~cacao material~.
Ash { Maximum: 5% (Porto Cabello 4·65%)[226]
{ Minimum: 2% (Surinam 2·25%)
Cacao butter { Maximum: 54·5% (Machalla 54·06)
{ Minimum: 48·0% (Porto Cabello 45·87).[226]
2. ~For cacao fat.~ Melting point 29 to 33·5° C.; freezing point
24 to 25° C.; refraction at 40° C., 46 to 49[226]; iodine value 34 to
37; point of saponification, 192 to 202.
3. ~Disintegrated cacao~: the amount of added alkali is not to
exceed 3%. In no case shall the ash content be more than 8%. This
figure is not inconsistent with the above stated maximum ash content,
as disintegrated or soluble cacao is manufactured from a mixture of
several sorts of cacao, in each of which (although they have been
defatted) there is not more than 5% of ash.
4. ~Chocolate~: although at the present time there are no limits
fixed for cacao and sugar, it may nevertheless be safely assumed that
the fat and sugar together may not exceed 80 to 85%, and that the rest
shall be pure non-fatty cacao material, in the proportion of from
15-20%. The ash in a good chocolate does not exceed 3·5%.
5. ~Milk chocolate~: here the separate ingredients require a
thorough drying. If the percentage of moisture amounts to as much as
five percent, the whole preparation is objectionable and liable to
lose its hard consistency.
6. ~Chocolate~ à la noisette, ~oat~, ~meat~ and
~medicinal chocolates~. The testing of these takes two chief
directions:
1. It must be established that the ingredients given on the label are
of good quality, and
2. that only the ingredients there mentioned occur in the packet.
The constituents and their proportions shall be declared on the
wrappers in the case of medicinal chocolate.
On the 1st July then, in the year 1909, the act passed in connection
with foods and articles of consumption December 5th, 1905 came into
force in Switzerland. Thereby the whole of Swiss trade in such
foodstuffs and articles of consumption is systematically controlled.
Of the 268 articles which are generally representative, we annex here
those concerning cacao, powder and chocolate, namely, nos 146 to 149.
=Art. 146.= Under the designation ~cacao~ or ~cacao powder~
only the pure, unaltered or only partially defatted natural product may
be brought into commerce.
A cacao powder may only be described as ~soluble~ when it has been
treated with carbonic acid alkalis or disintegrated with steam.
Soluble cacao may only contain 3% added alkalis on the outside.
=Art. 147.= Under the designation ~chocolate~, only a mixture of
cacao and sugar with or without addition of cacao butter and spices is
to be understood, and no other may be brought on the market as such.
The percentage of sugar in chocolate may not exceed 68.[227]
=Art. 148.= Cacao and chocolate may not contain starch, meal, foreign
fat, mineral substances, colouring matter and so-called fat economisers
(dextrine, gelatine, resin and tragacanth) and only traces of cacao
shell. They may not be gritty nor foul smelling nor otherwise spoilt.
=Art. 149.= Special products of cacao and chocolate with addition of
oats, milk, acorns and hazel nuts must be declared accordingly (as oat
cacao, milk chocolate etc.). Fancy confections fall also under this
obligation.
Cacaos and chocolates which are put on the market in packets, boxes and
packages must contain the name of the firm on the wrapper, or some mark
of the manufacturer or salesman which is recognised in Switzerland.
If saccharine, dulcine or other artificial sweetstuffs are added to
chocolate, such admixture must be declared on the wrapper.[228]
4. Austria.
Legal control of the traffic in cacao preparations in this country may
be expected in the near future.
~Austria~ is indeed already in possession of a law (dated January
19th, 1896) concerning the traffic in articles of consumption, although
the special determinations have hitherto not reached perfection, and
the treatment of the separate detailed articles must proceed gradually.
As in Switzerland, the Association of Food Chemists and Analysts here
have worked out designs for a “Codex alimentarius austriacus The work
of this code commission is of a purely private nature and accordingly
no official importance accrues to it, but it is none the less
recognised by all Austrian chemists and has indirectly (and even in law
courts) about the same weight as the opinion of an expert, especially
as the single articles of consumption are almost exclusively limited to
specialists in this country. We therefore introduce the most important
points of this code which bear on our subject, although various
alterations must be made in these as they succeed to legal recognition,
for since the appearance of the code many changes have developed as
regards the methods of research.
I. Cacao Mass.
~Definition.~ Under cacao mass is to be understood the material
constituting a regular and uniform dough when warmed, which has been
exclusively prepared and manufactured from the shelled cacao bean.
~Ingredients.~ Cacao material contains the same ingredients
chemically as the shelled bean.
Microscopical investigation should only reveal the presence of seed
kernel, and not particles of root, which should be removed in the
course of preparation.
The ash may not exceed 3·5%[229], the fibre 3%[229], and the starch
10·5%. The amount of fat figures at between 48 and 52 percent.
II. Cocoa powder.
(Pulverised cacao, defatted, and disintegrated.)
~Definition.~ Hereby is understood the steamed preparations or
the powder obtained by expressing at least half the total fat from
ordinary cacao material and further grinding and sifting.
~Characteristics.~ The cocoa powder shall on boiling with 20 to
30 times its volume of water yield a suspension, in which there are no
traces of lumpy formation, and which does not show a sediment after the
expiration of a few minutes.[230] Should there be any such sediment, it
shall be examined under the microscope.
Cocoa powder shall be sifted and ground free from meal, and may not, on
sifting through a miller gauze (No. 12) show more than 5% of material
on the sieve.
The chemical composition of cocoa powder is modified according to the
degree of defatting. If 30 parts out of 100 are defatted, which is the
usual procedure. If 30 parts fat are expressed from 100 parts cacao
material, which usually happens, then the cocoa powder contains 30%
fat, 5% ash[231], 3·5% fibre, and 13%.
The amount of moisture shall not exceed 6%.
The fat shall be pure cacao butter.
~Addition of alkalis is not allowed.~
Microscopical investigation as under I.
III. Chocolate.
~Definition.~ Chocolate is the cacao material evenly and regularly
worked up with cane sugar (refined, ordinary or coarse).
The completely uniform pasty mass, when warmed, is allowed to set in
moulds and then forms pieces of fatty appearance, finely granular or
close fracture (tablets, blocks).
Good chocolate consists of 40 to 50 percent of cacao mass and 50 to
60 percent of sugar.
It may also contain a small amount of harmless aromatic substances.
Should the sum of the cacao fat and sugar in chocolate amount to over
85 percent, it is termed “Sweetmeat chocolate”, and should the sum
of those ingredients be more than 90 percent, the chocolate is to be
declared as “Very sweet
All the ingredients in chocolate, after deducting the sugar, shall be
present in the same relative proportion and in the same condition as in
pure cacao mass (compare I).
Sweetened chocolate is an exception, in so far as it has had in its
preparation an addition of cacao butter. Fine kinds are also prepared
with an addition of defatted cacao.
~Unmoulded~ chocolate or chocolate powder shall answer to the same
requirements.
IV. Cacao surrogate and chocolate surrogate.
~Definition.~ Cacao preparations containing admixtures of meal are
to be described as surrogates.
The addition of other substances than meal is inadmissible.
Absence of cacao husk is also required as in I, II, III.
Mixtures of cacao powder, sugar and meal are also to be regarded as
surrogates.
The extent of the addition of meal is to be distinctly noted by the
seller on the article sold.
V. Couverture (coating mass).
~Definition.~ This includes various preparations of pure cacao
butter and chocolate (or mixtures of chocolate with cacao butter and
cacao mass), which form a thin liquid, when warmed, and are used for
coating or pouring over confectionery. All other substances (roasted
hazel nuts or almonds and the like) shall be declared.
Investigation.
~To be carried out without exception with all cacao preparations~:
1. ~Determination of fat.~ The fat is extracted from the dry
substance which has been mixed with an indifferent body (sand) by pure
and absolutely dry ether (distilled over sodium) or by petroleum ether.
Cacao mass and chocolate must first be shaved or rasped.
2. ~Jesting of the fat.~
a) Determination of the melting point in a capillary tube (three days
after the fat has been melted into the tube).[232] Pure cacao butter
usually melts at 33° C.
b) Determination of the iodine value; usually 35·0 with pure cacao fat.
It is further recommended to make a refractometric determination, which
in a Zeiss butter-refractometer must be 46·5° at 40° C.
3. The ~microscopic test~ of the substance, from which the fat and
the sugar have been removed.
~The following are also essential~:
I. With cacao mass.
The determination of fibre and ash.
II. Cacao powder.
Determination of moisture at 100° C., of the fibre and ash and
examination of the ash (quantitative determination of phosphoric acid
and potash).
III. Chocolate.
Determination of the sugar by polarisation of the aqueous solution.
IV. Surrogates.
Determination of the starch.
If it is considered necessary to proceed further, then:
1. Determination of theobromine by a modification of Wolfram’s method,
the method employed is to be exactly stated.[233]
2. In the determination of starch, the gelatinisation is to be carried
out under steam pressure and the inverted sugar gravimetrically
determined with Fehling’s solution.
An opinion of the quality of the preparation can be formed from the
taste, smell and colour of the sample on boiling with water.
5. Germany.
In ~Germany~, unfortunately, there is at present no law, which
regulates the trade in cacao goods. It is true that there exists the
decree of the 14th May, 1879 respecting the trade in food, alimentary
substances and comestibles, which contains the usual penal enactments
in regard to adulteration of food materials offered for sale. The
enactments are supplemented with data relating to the administration of
the law, among which a definition of chocolate, as well as the means
of judging as to the quality or its adulteration, are treated of. But
those data do not in all respects apply to existing conditions, nor
do they deal fully with the question as to what admixtures are to be
permitted or prohibited, for in the introduction to the appendix A,
there is the following statement:
“Like the former provision, the present one is not intended to be an
~exhaustive~ description of all subjects of the kind referred
to, but a compilation of those examples which appear to be especially
calculated to serve as an illustration of legislative requirements.”
The data referred to have not an officially authoritative significance,
and they cannot be regarded as having established validity in
connection with the administration of the law by the police or by legal
authorities. (See: Commentary by Meyer-Finkenburg, page 116.)
Even the complete publication of the “Vereinbarungen zur einheitlichen
Untersuchung von Nahrungs-und Genußmitteln sowie Gebrauchsgegenständen
für das Deutsche Reich”, collected at the instance of the national
health department, will not have the effect of giving certainty in
the law relating to the manufacture of chocolate. That section of the
“Vereinbarungen”, which deals with cacao products, was published in
Book III (Berlin, Julius Springer 1912) pages 68-81, but the conditions
in Germany are at present only similar to those existing in Switzerland
and in Austria. The “Vereinbarungen” are nothing more, than a valuable
semiofficial guide for the valuation and examination of food and
comestibles, the provisions of which, not being obligationary, have
no legal effect. They have long been in need of a thorough revision,
as recent scientifical results testify, and indeed “The Voluntary
association of German Food Chemists” have for years been engaged in
such revision.
The consequence is, that the prosecution of various manipulation which
certainly deserve to be objected to, such as the preparation of cacao
or chocolate from undecorticated beans, would be difficult to carry
out. The Association of German Chocolate Manufacturers has protested
against that unsuitable state of affairs, and since a remedy is to be
looked for only from the enactment of a law regulating the trade in
cacao products, that association prepared a draft act, at its XVII.
annual meeting at Leipsic on the 15th January 1893, and has submitted
it to the government health department.
That draft is in accordance with the provisions printed on pages 231
and 232 a-e. The provisions of the association in reference to the
trade in cacao products also contain the following paragraphs:
§ 2.
It is not to be considered adulteration or counterfeit, within the
meaning of the law (§ 10) relating to trade in food materials,
comestibles or articles of consumption (of 14th May 1879,
Reichsgesetzblatt page 145):
1. When the productions referred to under a, b, c are mixed with meal
or other substances for medicinal purposes, provided, they are of a
character by which they are distinctly recognisable, or are kept in
stock or offered for sale under a designation distinguishing them from
chocolate, cacao mass, or cacao powder.
2. When covering or coating material, or sweetmeat chocolate is mixed
with burnt almonds or hazel nuts to the extent of 5 %.
§ 3.
Adulteration within the meaning of the law dated May 14th 1879, § 10
(Reichsgesetzblatt, page 145) comprises:
1. The addition of foreign fat to chocolate, cacao mass or cacao butter.