What makes a good chocolate?
The secret is essentially in the cocoa it contains.
With this objective in mind, the Consumer Council has set out to test the quality of chocolates available to consumers here in Hong Kong.
It has joined hands with the International Consumer Research and Testing (ICRT) in a project that focused on plain chocolates (or commonly called dark chocolate).
Eleven samples of plain chocolate originating from Europe were sourced locally and shipped to a laboratory in France where the test was conducted.
Traditionally, by European standard, the most premium chocolate are those containing cocoa butter only.
But in 2003, the European Union amended its regulation on cocoa and chocolate products, allowing vegetable fats (of not more than 5%) to be added to chocolate products. Further, the chocolate must be so labeled that it "contains vegetable fats in addition to cocoa butter."
There is obviously great incentive for manufacturers to replace part of the coca butter with vegetable fats which are cheaper and thus reduce the production cost of chocolates.
The test, therefore, sought to identify the presence of vegetable fats other than cocoa butter, and the quantity of total cocoa solids, total fat and sucrose. Also evaluated were their freshness and product labeling.
Chocolate connoisseurs will be delighted to learn of the outcome of the test - all 11 Hong Kong samples were without exception made by cocoa butter only. No other vegetable fats were found in these chocolates.
According to the Codex Standard for Chocolate and Chocolate Products, chocolate shall contain not less than 35% of total cocoa solids, of which at least 18% and 14% shall be cocoa butter and fat-free cocoa solids respectively.
The test found all samples to contain total cocoa solids ranging from 53% to 79%.
There was not much discrepancy (9% or below) between the actual total cocoa solid contents and the labeled values in the 9 samples that carried this information on the package. Two were not labeled with their cocoa solid content.
While the prices of the chocolate samples varied quite considerably from $12.2 to $51.7 per 100g of product, there was no direct correlation between the price and the total cocoa solid content.
All samples were also tested to be in good freshness and preservation conditions - with a peroxide index (which reflects the oxidation and degradation of fat products) well below 3 meq/kg.
But chocolate lovers are advised to watch out for their intake. The sample included in the test had fat content of 33.3g/100g to 48.5g/100g while the sucrose content 20.7g/100g to 46.7g/100g.
Take the sample with the highest fat content, for instance, consuming one package (100g) of this chocolate alone will reach about 70% of the WHO (World Health Organization) recommended daily intake on fat (based on a 2,000kcal adult diet).
And in the case of the sample with the highest sucrose content, eating one package (125g) of the chocolate will already exceed the WHO recommended daily intake on free sugar.
So, although chocolate may have been shown in scientific literatures to have beneficial effects on cardiovascular diseases, consumers and patients with diabetes or hyperlipidemia in particular should not overlook their fat and sucrose contents. Though rare, few people may be allergic to chocolates (or the milk and nuts in the ingredients).
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