ADULTERATION AND THE NEED FOR DEFINITIONS
Those that mix maize in the Chocolate do very ill, for they
beget bilious and melancholy humours.
_A Curious Treatise on the Nature and Quality of Chocolate_,
Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma, 1685.
COCOA.
Cocoa might conveniently be defined as consisting exclusively of
shelled, roasted, finely-ground cacao beans, partially de-fatted, with
or without a minute quantity of flavouring material.
The gross adulteration of cocoa is now a thing of the past, and most of
the cocoa sold conforms with this definition. Statements, however, get
copied from book to book, and hence we continue to read that cocoa
usually contains arrowroot or other starch. In the old days this was
frequently so, but now, owing to many legal actions by Public Health
Authorities, this abuse has been stamped out. Nowadays if a Public
Analyst finds flour or arrowroot in a sample bought as cocoa, he
describes it as adulterated, and the seller is prosecuted and fined.
Hence, save for the presence of cacao shell, the cocoa of the present
day is a pure article consisting simply of roasted, finely-ground cacao
beans partially de-fatted. The principal factors affecting the quality
of the finished cocoa are the difference in the kind of cacao bean used,
the amount of cacao butter extracted, the care in preparation, and the
amount of cacao shell left in.
The presence of more than a small percentage of shell in cocoa is a
disadvantage both on the ground of taste and of food value. This has
been recognised from the earliest times (see quotations on p. 128). In
the Cocoa Powder Order of 1918, the amount of shell which a cocoa powder
might contain was defined--_grade A_ not to contain more than two per
cent. of shell, and _grade B_ not more than five per cent. of shell. The
manufacturers of high-class cocoa welcomed these standards, but
unfortunately the known analytical methods are not delicate enough to
estimate accurately such small quantities, so that any external check is
difficult, and the purchaser has to trust to the honesty of the
manufacturer. Hence it is wise to purchase cocoa only from makers of
good repute.
CHOCOLATE.
We have so far no legal definition of chocolate in England. As Mr. N.P.
Booth pointed out at the Seventh International Congress of Applied
Chemistry: "At the present time a mixture of cocoa with sugar and starch
cannot be sold as pure cocoa, but only as 'chocolate powder,' and with a
definite declaration that the article is a mixture of cocoa and other
ingredients. Prosecutions are constantly occurring where mixtures of
foreign starch and sugar with cocoa have been sold as 'cocoa,' and it
seems, therefore, a proper step to take to require that a similar
declaration shall be made in the case of 'chocolate' which contains
other constituents than the products of cocoa nib and sugar." We cannot
do better than quote in full the definitions suggested in Mr. Booth's
paper.
The author refers to the absence of any legal standard for chocolate in
England, although in some of the European countries standards are in
force, and points out, as a result of this, that articles of which the
sale would be prohibited in some other countries, are permitted to come
without restriction on to the English market.
[Illustration: WHARF AT FACTORY AT KNIGHTON, AT WHICH MILK IS EVAPORATED
FOR MILK CHOCOLATE MANUFACTURE.
(Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Ltd.)]
He suggests that the following definitions for chocolate goods are
reasonable, and could be conformed to by makers of the genuine article.
These standards are not more stringent than those already enforced in
some of the Colonies and European countries:
(1) Unsweetened chocolate or _cacao mass_ must be prepared
exclusively from roasted, shelled, finely-ground cacao beans,
with or without the addition of a small quantity of
flavouring matter, and should not contain less than 45 per
cent. of cacao butter.
(2) Sweetened chocolate or _chocolate_.--A preparation
consisting exclusively of the products of roasted, shelled,
finely-ground cacao beans, and not more than 65 per cent. of
sugar, with or without a small quantity of harmless
flavouring matter.
(3) _Granulated_, or _Ground Chocolate for Drinking_
purposes.--The same definition as for sweetened chocolate
should apply here, except that the proportion of sugar may be
raised to not more than 75 per cent.
(4) _Chocolate-covered Goods._--Various forms of
confectionery covered with chocolate, the composition of the
latter agreeing with the definition of sweetened chocolate.
(5) _Milk Chocolate._--A preparation composed exclusively of
roasted, shelled cacao beans, sugar, and not less than 15 per
cent. of the dry solids of full-cream milk, with or without a
small quantity of harmless flavouring matter.
Mr. Booth further states that starch other than that naturally present
in the cacao bean, and cacao shell in powder form, should be absolutely
excluded from any article which is to be sold under the name of
"chocolate."