Part IV. Examination and Analysis of Cacao Preparations. (continued 2)

The chemical composition of cocoa powder is modified according to the degree of defatting. If 30 parts out of 100 are defatted, which is the usual procedure. If 30 parts fat are expressed from 100 parts cacao material, which usually happens, then the cocoa powder contains

30% fat, 5% ash231, 3·5% fibre, and 13%.

The amount of moisture shall not exceed 6%.

The fat shall be pure cacao butter.

Addition of alkalis is not allowed.

Microscopical investigation as under I.

III. Chocolate.

Definition. Chocolate is the cacao material evenly and regularly worked up with cane sugar (refined, ordinary or coarse).

The completely uniform pasty mass, when warmed, is allowed to set in moulds and then forms pieces of fatty appearance, finely granular or close fracture (tablets, blocks).

Good chocolate consists of 40 to 50 percent of cacao mass and 50 to 60 percent of sugar.

It may also contain a small amount of harmless aromatic substances.

Should the sum of the cacao fat and sugar in chocolate amount to over 85 percent, it is termed “Sweetmeat chocolate”, and should the sum of those ingredients be more than 90 percent, the chocolate is to be declared as “Very sweet

All the ingredients in chocolate, after deducting the sugar, shall be present in the same relative proportion and in the same condition as in pure cacao mass (compare I).

Sweetened chocolate is an exception, in so far as it has had in its preparation an addition of cacao butter. Fine kinds are also prepared with an addition of defatted cacao.

Unmoulded chocolate or chocolate powder shall answer to the same requirements.

IV. Cacao surrogate and chocolate surrogate.

Definition. Cacao preparations containing admixtures of meal are to be described as surrogates.

The addition of other substances than meal is inadmissible.

Absence of cacao husk is also required as in I, II, III.

Mixtures of cacao powder, sugar and meal are also to be regarded as surrogates.

The extent of the addition of meal is to be distinctly noted by the seller on the article sold.

V. Couverture (coating mass).

Definition. This includes various preparations of pure cacao butter and chocolate (or mixtures of chocolate with cacao butter and cacao mass), which form a thin liquid, when warmed, and are used for coating or pouring over confectionery. All other substances (roasted hazel nuts or almonds and the like) shall be declared.

Investigation.

To be carried out without exception with all cacao preparations:

1. Determination of fat. The fat is extracted from the dry substance which has been mixed with an indifferent body (sand) by pure and absolutely dry ether (distilled over sodium) or by petroleum ether. Cacao mass and chocolate must first be shaved or rasped.

2. Jesting of the fat.

a) Determination of the melting point in a capillary tube (three days after the fat has been melted into the tube).232 Pure cacao butter usually melts at 33° C.

b) Determination of the iodine value; usually 35·0 with pure cacao fat.

It is further recommended to make a refractometric determination, which in a Zeiss butter-refractometer must be 46·5° at 40° C.

3. The microscopic test of the substance, from which the fat and the sugar have been removed.

The following are also essential:

I. With cacao mass.

The determination of fibre and ash.

II. Cacao powder.

Determination of moisture at 100° C., of the fibre and ash and examination of the ash (quantitative determination of phosphoric acid and potash).

III. Chocolate.

Determination of the sugar by polarisation of the aqueous solution.

IV. Surrogates.

Determination of the starch.

If it is considered necessary to proceed further, then:

1. Determination of theobromine by a modification of Wolfram’s method, the method employed is to be exactly stated.233

2. In the determination of starch, the gelatinisation is to be carried out under steam pressure and the inverted sugar gravimetrically determined with Fehling’s solution.

An opinion of the quality of the preparation can be formed from the taste, smell and colour of the sample on boiling with water.

5. Germany.

In Germany, unfortunately, there is at present no law, which regulates the trade in cacao goods. It is true that there exists the decree of the 14th May, 1879 respecting the trade in food, alimentary substances and comestibles, which contains the usual penal enactments in regard to adulteration of food materials offered for sale. The enactments are supplemented with data relating to the administration of the law, among which a definition of chocolate, as well as the means of judging as to the quality or its adulteration, are treated of. But those data do not in all respects apply to existing conditions, nor do they deal fully with the question as to what admixtures are to be permitted or prohibited, for in the introduction to the appendix A, there is the following statement:

“Like the former provision, the present one is not intended to be an exhaustive description of all subjects of the kind referred to, but a compilation of those examples which appear to be especially calculated to serve as an illustration of legislative requirements.”

The data referred to have not an officially authoritative significance, and they cannot be regarded as having established validity in connection with the administration of the law by the police or by legal authorities. (See: Commentary by Meyer-Finkenburg, page 116.)

Even the complete publication of the “Vereinbarungen zur einheitlichen Untersuchung von Nahrungs-und Genußmitteln sowie Gebrauchsgegenständen für das Deutsche Reich”, collected at the instance of the national health department, will not have the effect of giving certainty in the law relating to the manufacture of chocolate. That section of the “Vereinbarungen”, which deals with cacao products, was published in Book III (Berlin, Julius Springer 1912) pages 68-81, but the conditions in Germany are at present only similar to those existing in Switzerland and in Austria. The “Vereinbarungen” are nothing more, than a valuable semiofficial guide for the valuation and examination of food and comestibles, the provisions of which, not being obligationary, have no legal effect. They have long been in need of a thorough revision, as recent scientifical results testify, and indeed “The Voluntary association of German Food Chemists” have for years been engaged in such revision.

The consequence is, that the prosecution of various manipulation which certainly deserve to be objected to, such as the preparation of cacao or chocolate from undecorticated beans, would be difficult to carry out. The Association of German Chocolate Manufacturers has protested against that unsuitable state of affairs, and since a remedy is to be looked for only from the enactment of a law regulating the trade in cacao products, that association prepared a draft act, at its XVII. annual meeting at Leipsic on the 15th January 1893, and has submitted it to the government health department.

That draft is in accordance with the provisions printed on pages 231 and 232 a-e. The provisions of the association in reference to the trade in cacao products also contain the following paragraphs:

§ 2.

It is not to be considered adulteration or counterfeit, within the meaning of the law (§ 10) relating to trade in food materials, comestibles or articles of consumption (of 14th May 1879, Reichsgesetzblatt page 145):

1. When the productions referred to under a, b, c are mixed with meal or other substances for medicinal purposes, provided, they are of a character by which they are distinctly recognisable, or are kept in stock or offered for sale under a designation distinguishing them from chocolate, cacao mass, or cacao powder.

2. When covering or coating material, or sweetmeat chocolate is mixed with burnt almonds or hazel nuts to the extent of 5 %.

§ 3.

Adulteration within the meaning of the law dated May 14th 1879, § 10 (Reichsgesetzblatt, page 145) comprises:

1. The addition of foreign fat to chocolate, cacao mass or cacao butter.

2. The addition to chocolate, cacao material or cocoa powder of cacao husk, meal or other substances, except in the cases mentioned on page 279, § 2, pos. 1 and 2.234

3. The addition of colouring materials to chocolate.

4. The addition to chocolate or chocolate surrogates of any but cane sugars (beetroot sugar).

§ 4.

As already pointed out, the terms of this proposed legislative step naturally command approval and we should be the first to welcome the appearance of a “Deutsches Lebensmittelbuch” or some similar work235, intended to serve as an authoritative regulation of the trade in cacao preparations and as a protection of honest manufacturers against the uncertainty now attending legal proceedings. In that case, other civilised countries might be expected to follow.