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The Chocolate War
Washington Post: Lines Drawn Over Cocoa Butter
Proposed FDA change in what can be defined as chocolate has purists up in arms.
NPR: An Argument Against ‘Healthy’ Chocolate
The Food and Drug Administration considers changing the ingredients in one favorite diet buster: chocolate. A recent proposal by the FDA that would allow manufacturers to replace the cocoa butter found in chocolate with vegetable fats and oils.
Chris at AMERICAblog: Big Food reaches out to friendly FDA to update definition of chocolate
Tangential Opinion by Autumn at PHB: Not “Blood Diamonds,” But “Blood Chocolates”
6 Responses to “The Chocolate War”
If only this was a joke!
This is war! Whoever wins the presidency in 08 will have to be on the side of chocoholics and straighten out the FDA.
Time to buy imported chocolate, I guess- goodbye to Nestles crunch and Hershey bars with almonds, sob.
Them there are fightin’ words….hands off the chocolate! My parents are chocolate snobs, most especially my father, who turns up his nose at anything below 80%. I’m still in kiddie mode, a hershey’s bar is just fine by me, if that’s what there is.
It’s not just chocolate thats a problem in this country, it is all our food products. With our lax regulations, food corporations can put a lot of substitutes in no matter what the health consequences. As an example, in the US soda, for the most part, has corn syrup rather than sugar. I remember when I was in Britain, I could not find any soda with corn syrup in the ingredients. This is also one of the reasons we have an obesity problem in this country as compared to countries such has Britain. I’m not saying they are perfect, however similar safety and health regulations in this country would be nice.
Meanwhile, if you want actual chocolate go to the organic isle.
Ashen Shard is right- corn syrup is being put into a whole host of products, because it is so cheap, and it is leading to more obese Americans. Industry lobbyists fight for deregulation so that their profits will rise, which makes investors happy, as well as those who call for smaller govt. But it seems to me we have now the worst of both worlds- a bloated bureacracy that doesn’t keep us safe.
Hmmmm. This reminds me that a trip to Lawrence to Brits, a store that carries an amazing variety of things from the U.K., including chocolate and candies of many kinds just might be in order.