Chocolate in its most common forms: powder and bars
Chocolate or cocoa is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cocoa has been consumed in some form for at least 5,300 years starting with the Mayo-Chinchipe culture in what is present-day Ecuador. Later, Mesoamerican civilizations also consumed chocolate beverages, and it was introduced to Europe in the 16th century.
The seeds of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) have an intense bitter taste and must be fermented to develop the flavor. After fermentation, the seeds are dried, cleaned, and roasted. The shell is removed to produce nibs, which are then ground to cocoa mass, unadulterated chocolate in rough form. Once the cocoa mass is liquefied by heating, it is called chocolate liquor. The liquor may also be cooled and processed into its two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Baking chocolate, also called bitter chocolate, contains cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions without any added sugar. Powdered baking cocoa, which contains more fiber than cocoa butter, can be processed with alkali to produce Dutch cocoa. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, a combination of cocoa solids, cocoa butter, and added vegetable oils and sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk, but no cocoa solids.
Chocolate is one of the most popular food types and flavors in the world, and many foodstuffs involving chocolate exist, particularly desserts, including cakes, pudding, mousse, chocolate brownies, and chocolate chip cookies. Many candies are filled with or coated with sweetened chocolate. Chocolate bars, either made of solid chocolate or other ingredients coated in chocolate, are eaten as snacks. Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes (such as eggs, hearts, and coins) are traditional on certain Western holidays, including Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, and Hanukkah. Chocolate is also used in cold and hot beverages, such as chocolate milk and hot chocolate, and in some alcoholic drinks, such as crème de cacao.
Although cocoa originated in the Americas, West African countries, particularly Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, are the leading producers of cocoa in the 21st century, accounting for some 60% of the world cocoa supply. A 2020 report estimated that more than 1.5 million children are involved in the farming of cocoa in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.[1]Child slavery and trafficking associated with the cocoa trade remain major concerns. A 2018 report argued that international attempts to improve conditions for children were doomed to failure because of persistent poverty, the absence of schools, increasing world cocoa demand, more intensive farming of cocoa, and continued exploitation of child labor.
Cocoa is a variant of cacao, likely due to confusion with the word coco.[2] It is ultimately derived from kakaw(a), but whether that word originates in Nahuatl or a Mixe-Zoquean language is the subject of substantial linguistic debate.[2][3] Chocolate is a Spanish loanword, first recorded in English in 1604,[4] and first recorded in Spanish in 1579.[5] The word for chocolate drink in early Nahuatl texts is cacahuatl meaning "cacao water", which chocolate does not immediately derive from.[6]
Despite theories that chocolate is derived from xocoatl meaning "bitter drink" or chocolatl meaning "hot water"[7][8] and uncertainty around the Nahuatl origin, there is a consensus that it likely derives from chicolatl.[9] Whether chicolatl means "cacao beater", however, is contested, due to difficulty knowing what chico means.[10]
The term "chocolatier", for a chocolate confection maker, is recorded from 1859.[11]
Evidence for the domestication of the cacao tree exists as early as 5300 BP in South America, before it was introduced to Mesoamerica.[12] It is unknown when chocolate was first consumed as opposed to other cacao-based drinks, and there is evidence the Olmecs, the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization, fermented the sweet pulp surrounding the cacao beans into an alcoholic beverage.[13][14] Chocolate was extremely important to several Mesoamerican societies,[15] and cacao was considered a gift from the gods by the Mayans and the Aztecs.[16][17] The cocoa bean was used as a currency across civilizations and was used in ceremonies, as a tribute to leaders and gods and as a medicine.[18][19][20][21][22][23] Chocolate in Mesoamerica was a bitter drink, flavored with additives such as vanilla, earflower and chili, and was capped with a dark brown foam created by pouring the liquid from a height between containers.[24][25][26]
While Spanish conquistadorHernán Cortés may have been the first European to encounter chocolate when he observed it in the court of Moctezuma II in 1520,[27][28] it proved to be an acquired taste,[29][30] and it took until 1585 for the first official recording of a shipment of cocoa beans to Europe.[31] Chocolate was believed to be an aphrodisiac and medicine, and spread across Europe in the 17th century, sweetened, served warm and flavored with familiar spices.[32][33][34] It was initially primarily consumed by the elite, with expensive cocoa supplied by colonial plantations in the Americas.[32] In the 18th century, it was considered southern European, aristocratic and Catholic and was still produced in a similar way to the way it had been produced by the Aztecs.[35]
Starting in the 18th century, chocolate production was improved. In the 19th century, engine-powered milling was developed,[37][38] and in 1828, Coenraad Johannes van Houten received a patent for a process making Dutch cocoa. This removed cocoa butter from chocolate liquor (the product of milling), and permitted large scale production of chocolate.[39] Other developments in the 19th century, including the melanger (a mixing machine), modern milk chocolate, the conching process to make chocolate smoother and change the flavour meant a worker in 1890 could produce fifty times more chocolate with the same labor than they could before the Industrial Revolution, and chocolate became a food to be eaten rather than drunk.[40] As production moved from the Americas to Asia and Africa, mass markets in Western nations for chocolate opened up.[41]
In the early 20th century, British chocolate producers including Cadbury and Fry's faced controversy over the labor conditions in the Portuguese cacao industry in Africa. A 1908 report by a Cadbury agent described conditions as "de facto slavery."[42] While conditions somewhat improved with a boycott by chocolate makers,[38][43] slave labor among African cacao growers again gained public attention in the early 21st century.[44] During the 20th century, chocolate production further developed, with development of the tempering technique to improve the snap and gloss of chocolate and the addition of lecithin to improve texture and consistency.[45][46]White and couverture chocolate were developed in the 20th century and the bean-to-bar trade model began.[47][48][49]
Several types of chocolate can be distinguished. Pure, unsweetened chocolate, often called "baking chocolate", contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, which combines chocolate with sugar.
Eating chocolate
The traditional types of chocolate are dark, milk and white. All of them contain cocoa butter, which is the ingredient defining the physical properties of chocolate (consistency and melting temperature). Plain (or dark) chocolate, as it name suggests, is a form of chocolate that is similar to pure cocoa liquor, although is usually made with a slightly higher proportion of cocoa butter.[50] It is simply defined by its cocoa percentage. In milk chocolate, the non-fat cocoa solids are partly or mostly replaced by milk solids.[51] In white chocolate, they are all replaced by milk solids, hence its ivory color.[52]
Other forms of eating chocolate exist, these include raw chocolate (made with unroasted beans) and ruby chocolate. An additional popular form of eating chocolate, gianduja, is made by incorporating nut paste (typically hazelnut) to the chocolate paste.[53]
Chocolate is created from the cocoa bean. A cacao tree with fruit pods in various stages of ripening.
Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, the dried and fermented seeds of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao), a small, 4–8 m tall (15–26 ft tall) evergreen tree native to the deep tropical region of the Americas.
Recent genetic studies suggest the most common genotype of the plant originated in the Amazon basin and was gradually transported by humans throughout South and Central America. Early forms of another genotype have also been found in what is now Venezuela. The scientific name, Theobroma, means "food of the gods".[55] The fruit, called a cocoa pod, is ovoid, 15–30 cm (6–12 in) long and 8–10 cm (3–4 in) wide, ripening yellow to orange, and weighing about 500 g (1.1 lb) when ripe.
Cacao trees are small, understory trees that need rich, well-drained soils. They naturally grow within 20° of either side of the equator because they need about 2000 mm of rainfall a year, and temperatures in the range of 21 to 32 °C (70 to 90 °F). Cacao trees cannot tolerate a temperature lower than 15 °C (59 °F).[56]
Genome
The sequencing in 2010 of the genome of the cacao tree may allow yields to be improved.[57] Due to concerns about global warming effects on lowland climate in the narrow band of latitudes where cocoa is grown (20 degrees north and south of the equator), the commercial company Mars, Incorporated and the University of California, Berkeley, are conducting genomic research in 2017–18 to improve the survivability of cacao plants in hot climates.[58]
Cocoa pods are harvested by cutting them from the tree using a machete, or by knocking them off the tree using a stick. It is important to harvest the pods when they are fully ripe, because if the pod is unripe, the beans will have a low cocoa butter content, or low sugar content, reducing the ultimate flavor.
Microbial fermentation
The beans (which are sterile within their pods) and their surrounding pulp are removed from the pods and placed in piles or bins to ferment. Micro-organisms, present naturally in the environment, ferment the pectin-containing material. Yeasts produce ethanol, lactic acid bacteria produce lactic acid, and acetic acid bacteria produce acetic acid. In some cocoa-producing regions an association between filamentous fungi and bacteria (called "cocobiota") acts to produce metabolites beneficial to human health when consumed.[59] The fermentation process, which takes up to seven days, also produces several flavor precursors, that eventually provide the chocolate taste.[60]
After fermentation, the beans must be dried to prevent mold growth. Climate and weather permitting, this is done by spreading the beans out in the sun from five to seven days.[61] In some growing regions (for example, Tobago), the dried beans are then polished for sale by "dancing the cocoa": spreading the beans onto a floor, adding oil or water, and shuffling the beans against each other using bare feet.[62]
In an alternative process known as moist incubation, the beans are dried without fermentation. The nibs are then removed and hydrated in an acidic solution. They are heated for 72 hours and dried again. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry showed that the incubated chocolate had higher levels of Strecker aldehydes, and lower levels of pyrazines.[63][64]
Grinding and blending
A chocolate mill (right) grinds and heats cocoa kernels into chocolate liquor. A melanger (left) mixes milk, sugar, and other ingredients into the liquor.
The dried beans are then transported to a chocolate manufacturing facility. The beans are cleaned (removing twigs, stones, and other debris), roasted, and graded. Next, the shell of each bean is removed to extract the nib. The nibs are ground and liquefied, resulting in pure chocolate liquor.[65] The liquor can be further processed into cocoa solids and cocoa butter.[66]
Producers of high-quality, small-batch chocolate argue that mass production produces bad-quality chocolate.[67] Some mass-produced chocolate contains much less cocoa (as low as 7% in many cases), and fats other than cocoa butter. Vegetable oils and artificial vanilla flavor are often used in cheaper chocolate to mask poorly fermented and/or roasted beans.[67]
The penultimate process is called conching. A conche is a container filled with metal beads, which act as grinders. The refined and blended chocolate mass is kept in a liquid state by frictional heat. Chocolate before conching has an uneven and gritty texture. The conching process produces cocoa and sugar particles smaller than the tongue can detect (typically around 20 μm) and reduces rough edges, hence the smooth feel in the mouth. The length of the conching process determines the final smoothness and quality of the chocolate. High-quality chocolate is conched for about 72 hours, and lesser grades about four to six hours. After the process is complete, the chocolate mass is stored in tanks heated to about 45 to 50 °C (113 to 122 °F) until final processing.[68]
After conching, chocolate is tempered. This process aims to create a crystallize a small amount of fat in a particularly stable formation. Around this small amount of crystals, the rest of the fats crystallize, creating a glossy chocolate, with a crisp break.[69][70]
Shaping
Chocolate is molded in different shapes for different uses:[71]
Chocolate cubes, pistoles and calletsChocolate bars (tablets) are rectangular blocks of chocolate meant to be broken down to cubes (or other predefined shapes), which can then be used for consumption, cooking and baking. The term is also used for combination bars, which are a type of candy bars
Chocolate chips are small pieces of chocolate, usually drop-like, which are meant for decoration and baking
Pistoles, callets and fèves are small, coin-like or bean-like pieces of chocolate meant for baking and patisserie applications (also see Pistole (coin) and Fève (trinket))
Chocolate blocks are large, cuboid chunks of chocolate meant for professional use and further processing
Other, more specialized shapes for chocolate include sticks, curls and hollow semi-spheres
Storage
Chocolate is very sensitive to temperature and humidity. Ideal storage temperatures are between 15 and 17 °C (59 and 63 °F), with a relative humidity of less than 50%. If refrigerated or frozen without containment, chocolate can absorb enough moisture to cause a whitish discoloration, the result of fat or sugar crystals rising to the surface. Various types of "blooming" effects can occur if chocolate is stored or served improperly.[72]
Chocolate bloom is caused by storage temperature fluctuating or exceeding 24 °C (75 °F), while sugar bloom is caused by temperature below 15 °C (59 °F) or excess humidity. To distinguish between different types of bloom, one can rub the surface of the chocolate lightly, and if the bloom disappears, it is fat bloom. Moving chocolate between temperature extremes, can result in an oily texture. Although visually unappealing, chocolate suffering from bloom is safe for consumption and taste is unaffected.[73][74][75] Bloom can be reversed by retempering the chocolate or using it for any use that requires melting the chocolate.[76]
Chocolate is generally stored away from other foods, as it can absorb different aromas. Ideally, chocolates are packed or wrapped, and placed in proper storage with the correct humidity and temperature. Additionally, chocolate is frequently stored in a dark place or protected from light by wrapping paper. The glossy shine, snap, aroma, texture, and taste of the chocolate can show the quality and whether it was stored well.[77]
It is unlikely that chocolate consumption in small amounts causes lead poisoning. Some studies have shown that lead may bind to cocoa shells, and contamination may occur during the manufacturing process.[84] One study showed the mean lead level in milk chocolate candy bars was 0.027 μg lead per gram of candy;[84] another study found that some chocolate purchased at U.S. supermarkets contained up to 0.965 μg per gram, close to the international (voluntary) standard limit for lead in cocoa powder or beans, which is 1 μg of lead per gram.[85] In 2006, the U.S. FDA lowered by one-fifth the amount of lead permissible in candy, but compliance is only voluntary.[86] Studies concluded that "children, who are big consumers of chocolates, may be at risk of exceeding the daily limit of lead; whereas one 10 g cube of dark chocolate may contain as much as 20% of the daily lead oral limit. "Moreover chocolate may not be the only source of lead in their nutrition"[87] and "chocolate might be a significant source of cadmium and lead ingestion, particularly for children."[88] According to a 2005 study, the average lead concentration of cocoa beans is ≤ 0.5 ng/g, which is one of the lowest reported values for a natural food.[84] However, during cultivation and production, chocolate may absorb lead from the environment (such as in atmospheric emissions of now unused leaded gasoline).[84][89]
The European Food Safety Authority recommended a tolerable weekly intake for cadmium of 2.5 micrograms per kg of body weight for Europeans, indicating that consuming chocolate products caused exposure of about 4% among all foods eaten.[90][91][92]1986 California Proposition 65 requires a warning label on chocolate products having more than 4.1 mg of cadmium per daily serving of a single product.[93][94][95]
Caffeine
One tablespoonful (5 grams) of dry unsweetened cocoa powder has 12.1 mg of caffeine[96] and a 25-g single serving of dark chocolate has 22.4 mg of caffeine.[97] Although a single 7 oz. (200 ml) serving of coffee may contain 80–175 mg,[98] studies have shown psychoactive effects in caffeine doses as low as 9 mg, and a dose as low as 12.5 mg was shown to have effects on cognitive performance.[99]
Theobromine and oxalate
Chocolate may be a factor for heartburn in some people because one of its constituents, theobromine, may affect the esophageal sphincter muscle in a way that permits stomach acids to enter the esophagus.[100]Theobromine poisoning is an overdosage reaction to the bitter alkaloid, which happens more frequently in domestic animals than humans. However, daily intake of 50–100 g cocoa (0.8–1.5 g theobromine) by humans has been associated with sweating, trembling, and severe headache.[101]
A typical 20-kilogram (44 lb) dog will normally experience great intestinal distress after eating less than 240 grams (8.5 oz) of dark chocolate, but will not necessarily experience bradycardia or tachycardia unless it eats at least a half a kilogram (1.1 lb) of milk chocolate. Dark chocolate has 2 to 5 times more theobromine and thus is more dangerous to dogs. According to the Merck Veterinary Manual, approximately 1.3 grams of baker's chocolate per kilogram of a dog's body weight (0.02 oz/lb) is sufficient to cause symptoms of toxicity. For example, a typical 25-gram (0.88 oz) baker's chocolate bar would be enough to bring about symptoms in a 20-kilogram (44 lb) dog. In the 20th century, there were reports that mulch made from cocoa bean shells is dangerous to dogs and livestock.[106][107]
Research
Commonly consumed chocolate is high in fat and sugar, which are associated with an increased risk for obesity when chocolate is consumed in excess.[108]
Overall evidence is insufficient to determine the relationship between chocolate consumption and acne.[109][110] Various studies point not to chocolate, but to the high glycemic nature of certain foods, like sugar, corn syrup, and other simple carbohydrates, as potential causes of acne,[109][110][111][112] along with other possible dietary factors.[109][113]
Food, including chocolate, is not typically viewed as addictive.[114] Some people, however, may want or crave chocolate,[114] leading to a self-described term, chocoholic.[114][115]
By some popular myths, chocolate is considered to be a mood enhancer, such as by increasing sex drive or stimulating cognition, but there is little scientific evidence that such effects are consistent among all chocolate consumers.[116][117] If mood improvement from eating chocolate occurs, there is not enough research to indicate whether it results from the favorable flavor or from the stimulant effects of its constituents, such as caffeine, theobromine, or their parent molecule, methylxanthine.[117] A 2019 review reported that chocolate consumption does not improve depressive mood.[118]
Reviews support a short-term effect of lowering blood pressure by consuming cocoa products, but there is no evidence of long-term cardiovascular health benefit.[119][120] Chocolate and cocoa are under preliminary research to determine if consumption affects the risk of certain cardiovascular diseases[121] or enhances cognitive abilities.[122] While daily consumption of cocoa flavanols (minimum dose of 200 mg) appears to benefit platelet and vascular function,[123] there is no good evidence to indicate an effect on heart attacks or strokes.[123][124] Research has also shown that consuming dark chocolate does not substantially affect blood pressure.[125]
Labeling
Some manufacturers provide the percentage of chocolate in a finished chocolate confection as a label quoting percentage of "cocoa" or "cacao". This refers to the combined percentage of both cocoa solids and cocoa butter in the bar, not just the percentage of cocoa solids.[126] The Belgian AMBAO certification mark indicates that no non-cocoa vegetable fats have been used in making the chocolate.[127][128] A long-standing dispute between Britain on the one hand and Belgium and France over British use of vegetable fats in chocolate ended in 2000 with the adoption of new standards which permitted the use of up to five percent vegetable fats in clearly labelled products.[129] This British style of chocolate has sometimes been pejoratively referred to as "vegelate".[129]
In 2007, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association in the United States, whose members include Hershey, Nestlé, and Archer Daniels Midland, lobbied the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to change the legal definition of chocolate to let them substitute partially hydrogenated vegetable oils for cocoa butter, in addition to using artificial sweeteners and milk substitutes.[132] Currently, the FDA does not allow a product to be referred to as "chocolate" if the product contains any of these ingredients.[133][134]
In the United States, some large chocolate manufacturers lobbied the federal government to permit confections containing cheaper hydrogenated vegetable oil in place of cocoa butter to be sold as "chocolate". In June 2007, in response to consumer concern about the proposal, the FDA reiterated "Cacao fat, as one of the signature characteristics of the product, will remain a principal component of standardized chocolate."[135]
In the EU a product can be sold as chocolate if it contains up to 5% vegetable oil, and must be labeled as "family milk chocolate" rather than "milk chocolate" if it contains 20% milk.[136]
According to Canadian Food and Drug Regulations, a "chocolate product" is a food product that is sourced from at least one "cocoa product" and contains at least one of the following: "chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, dark chocolate, sweet chocolate, milk chocolate, or white chocolate". A "cocoa product" is defined as a food product that is sourced from cocoa beans and contains "cocoa nibs, cocoa liquor, cocoa mass, unsweetened chocolate, bitter chocolate, chocolate liquor, cocoa, low-fat cocoa, cocoa powder, or low-fat cocoa powder".[137]
Chocolate, prevalent throughout the world, is a steadily growing, US$50 billion-a-year worldwide business as of 2009.[138] As of 2006, Europe accounted for 45% of the world's chocolate revenue,[139] and the US spent $20 billion in 2013.[140]Big Chocolate is the grouping of major international chocolate companies in Europe and the U.S. U.S. companies Mars and Hershey's alone generated $13 billion a year in chocolate sales and account for two-thirds of U.S. production in 2004.[141] Despite the expanding reach of the chocolate industry internationally, cocoa farmers and laborers in the Ivory Coast are often unaware of the uses of the beans; the high cost of chocolate products in the Ivory Coast makes them inaccessible to the majority of the population, who do not know what chocolate tastes like.[142]
Roughly two-thirds of the entire world's cocoa is produced in West Africa, with 43% sourced from Côte d'Ivoire,[143] where, as of 2007[update], child labor is a common practice to obtain the product.[144][145] According to the World Cocoa Foundation, in 2007 some 50 million people around the world depended on cocoa as a source of livelihood.[146] As of 2007[update] in the UK, most chocolatiers purchase their chocolate from them, to melt, mold and package to their own design.[147] According to the WCF's 2012 report, the Ivory Coast is the largest producer of cocoa in the world.[148]
The two main jobs associated with creating chocolate candy are chocolate makers and chocolatiers. Chocolate makers use harvested cocoa beans and other ingredients to produce couverture chocolate (covering). Chocolatiers use the finished couverture to make chocolate candies (bars, truffles, etc.).[149]
Production costs can be decreased by reducing cocoa solids content or by substituting cocoa butter with another fat. Cocoa growers object to allowing the resulting food to be called "chocolate", due to the risk of lower demand for their crops.[146]
Guylian is best known for its chocolate sea shells; Cadbury for its Dairy Milk and Creme Egg. The Hershey Company, the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America, produces the Hershey Bar and Hershey's Kisses.[150] Mars Incorporated, a large privately owned U.S. corporation, produces Mars Bar, Milky Way, M&M's, Twix, and Snickers. Lindt is known for its truffle balls and gold foil-wrapped Easter bunnies.
Food conglomerates Nestlé SA and Kraft Foods both have chocolate brands. Nestlé acquired Rowntree's in 1988 and now markets chocolates under their brand, including Smarties (a chocolate candy) and Kit Kat (a chocolate bar); Kraft Foods through its 1990 acquisition of Jacobs Suchard, now owns Milka and Suchard. In February 2010, Kraft also acquired British-based Cadbury;[151] Fry's, Trebor Basset and the fair trade brand Green & Black's also belongs to the group.
The widespread use of children in cocoa production is controversial, not only for the concerns about child labor and exploitation, but also because up to 12,000 of the 200,000 children working in the Ivory Coast, the world's biggest producer of cocoa,[152] may be victims of trafficking or slavery.[153] Most attention on this subject has focused on West Africa, which collectively supplies 69 percent of the world's cocoa,[154] and the Ivory Coast in particular, which supplies 35 percent of the world's cocoa.[154] Thirty percent of children under age 15 in sub-Saharan Africa are child laborers, mostly in agricultural activities including cocoa farming.[155] Major chocolate producers, such as Nestlé, buy cocoa at commodities exchanges where Ivorian cocoa is mixed with other cocoa.[156]
As of 2017, approximately 2.1 million children in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire were involved in farming cocoa, carrying heavy loads, clearing forests, and being exposed to pesticides.[157] According to the former secretary-general of the Alliance of Cocoa Producing Countries: "I think child labor cannot be just the responsibility of industry to solve. I think it's the proverbial all-hands-on-deck: government, civil society, the private sector. And there, you need leadership."[153] Reported in 2018, a 3-year pilot program – conducted by Nestlé with 26,000 farmers mostly located in Côte d'Ivoire – observed a 51% decrease in the number of children doing hazardous jobs in cocoa farming.[158] The US Department of Labor formed the Child Labor Cocoa Coordinating Group as a public-private partnership with the governments of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire to address child labor practices in the cocoa industry.[159] The International Cocoa Initiative involving major cocoa manufacturers established the Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System intended to monitor thousands of farms in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire for child labor conditions,[158][157] but the program reached less than 20% of the child laborers.[160] Despite these efforts, goals to reduce child labor in West Africa by 70% before 2020 are frustrated by persistent poverty, absence of schools, expansion of cocoa farmland, and increased demand for cocoa.[158][161]
In April 2018, the Cocoa Barometer report stated: "Not a single company or government is anywhere near reaching the sector-wide objective of the elimination of child labor, and not even near their commitments of a 70% reduction of child labor by 2020". They cited persistent poverty, the absence of schools, increasing world cocoa demand, more intensive farming of cocoa, and continued exploitation of child labor.[158][161]
In the 2000s, some chocolate producers began to engage in fair trade initiatives, to address concerns about the marginalization of cocoa laborers in developing countries. Traditionally, Africa and other developing countries received low prices for their exported commodities such as cocoa, which caused poverty to abound. Fairtrade seeks to establish a system of direct trade from developing countries to counteract this system.[162] One solution for fair labor practices is for farmers to become part of an Agricultural cooperative. Cooperatives pay farmers a fair price for their cocoa so farmers have enough money for food, clothes, and school fees.[163] One of the main tenets of fair trade is that farmers receive a fair price, but this does not mean that the larger amount of money paid for fair trade cocoa goes directly to the farmers. The effectiveness of fair trade has been questioned. In a 2014 article, The Economist stated that workers on fair trade farms have a lower standard of living than on similar farms outside the fair trade system.[164]
Chocolate is sold in chocolate bars, which come in dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate varieties. Some bars that are mostly chocolate have other ingredients blended into the chocolate, such as nuts, raisins, or crisped rice. Chocolate is used as an ingredient in a huge variety of bars, which typically contain various confectionary ingredients (e.g., nougat, wafers, caramel, nuts, etc.) which are coated in chocolate.
A gift box of chocolates, which is a common gift for Valentine's Day
Chocolate is associated with festivals such as Easter, when molded chocolate rabbits and eggs are traditionally given in Christian communities, and Hanukkah, when chocolate coins are given in Jewish communities. Chocolate hearts and chocolate in heart-shaped boxes are popular on Valentine's Day and are often presented along with flowers and a greeting card. In 1868, Cadbury created a decorated box of chocolates in the shape of a heart for Valentine's Day.[36][165] Boxes of filled chocolates quickly became associated with the holiday.[36] Chocolate is an acceptable gift on other holidays and on occasions such as birthdays.
Many confectioners make holiday-specific chocolate candies. Chocolate Easter eggs or rabbits and Santa Claus figures are two examples. Such confections can be solid, hollow, or filled with sweets or fondant.
Books and film
Chocolate has been the center of several successful book and film adaptations.
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^Villa JE, Peixoto RR, Cadore S (2014). "Cadmium and Lead in Chocolates Commercialized in Brazil". Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 62 (34): 8759–63. doi:10.1021/jf5026604. PMID25123980.
^"32021R1323". EUR-Lex. 10 August 2021. Archived from the original on 15 March 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2023. new maximum levels for baby foods and chocolate/cocoa products were established under Commission Regulation (EU) No 488/2014
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^Abt E, Fong Sam J, Gray P, Robin LP (3 April 2018). "Cadmium and lead in cocoa powder and chocolate products in the US Market". Food Additives & Contaminants: Part B. 11 (2): 92–102. doi:10.1080/19393210.2017.1420700. PMID29310543. S2CID13677509.
^"Theobromine: Toxicity summary". PubChem, U.S. National Library of Medicine. 25 November 2023. Archived from the original on 26 November 2023. Retrieved 26 November 2023.
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