Chocolate or not?

Not content with the Europeans trying to reclassify our offerings as not-chocolate, the US seems to want to follow suit in the other direction with their own modifications.

What struck a chord was the desire to use vegetable oil (fat) and whey powder... don't they already do that here?

So I had a popped over the Cadbury's UK website for a list of just what goes into a bar of Dairy Milk- oops no list of ingredients there. I'll pick up a bar instead.

UK- Milk, Sugar, Cocoa mass, Cocoa butter, Vegetable fat, Emulsifiers (E442, E476), Flavourings

Hey look vegetable fat, how about elsewhere? I appealed for information.

South Africa - Sugar, Milk solids, Cocoa mass, Cocoa butter, Vegetable fat, Emulsifiers (soya), flavourants.

More vegetable fat and hey sugar's moved up a place (thanks Gail)

Australia - Full Cream Milk, Sugar, Milk Solids, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass, Emulsifiers (Soya Lecithin, 476), Flavours.

This is from Cadbury's own Australian site and hey look no vegetable fat, why's that?

Compound chocolate is made instead with vegetable oils, and doesn't have the same fine qualities as real chocolate.

Uh-huh, so it's okay to palm this stuff on others though?

Sabrina (USA) got me a list for Dove Rich Dark Chocolate bites - Semisweet chocolate (sugar, chocolate processed with alkali, chocolate, cocoa butter, milkfat, soy lecithin, natural and artificial flavors). "Sugar processed with alkali" threw me until Ross pointed me to Wikipedia which says

Processing cocoa with alkali destroys most of the flavonoids... which are thought to possess cardioprotective properties.

Nice, and take a look at that third ingredient "chocolate" wow this chocolate bar contains um chocolate? I'd have accepted chocolate liqueur, which is a name that can be given to processed cocoa beans, but just "chocolate". Oh and no vegetable fat that I can see, so bonus there

Some weren't a surprise Nestle's bars had vegetable fat in them, Green & Blacks didn't. The biggest shock to me was Lindt, their "Excellence" bars were fine, but their Milk chocolate "Lindor" offering... I may be going mad here but I swear the first two ingredients were Sugar and Vegetable fat followed by cocoa butter. And no you can't confirm this on their website.


Personally I gave up on Cadbury's years ago and Nestle even before that, but even taking account varying food laws amongst countries why do they think they can get away with foisting this cheaper lower quality chocolate on this or any other nation. Stand up people and demand proper real chocolate. Boycott Cadbury's own range (yes I know they own Green & Blacks) disregard Nestle, you don't even have to spend a fortune to satisfy your cravings - Sainsbury's own brand is cheaper and contains no vegetable fat, what a surprise it's produced in Belgium.

I still want to know more so add your country, chocolate and ingredients to the comments here. No account necessary to comment.