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.
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."