In more upsetting news

[hummingwolf]

The federal Food and Drug Administration is proposing to redefine the very essence of chocolate and to allow big manufacturers such as Hershey to sell a bar devoid of a key ingredient - cocoa butter. The butter’s natural texture could be replaced with inferior alternatives, such as vegetable fats. And consumers would never know.

Chocolatier Gary Guittard said it best: “No one can afford to sit back and eat bonbons while America’s great passion for chocolate is threatened.”

For every defender of traditional chocolate, there are powerful proponents who want to replace cocoa butter with vegetable oil: the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Snack Food Association. These industry titans have filed a “citizens petition” to the FDA, as the Los Angeles Times recently reported, as if there were some groundswell in society to water down chocolate.

Yet another reminder never to trust the FDA.

Comments

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

nooooooooooo!! as god is my witness, i'll never buy american chocolate again! if they do that, anyway. f***tards.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

I prefer buying organic chocolates when I can and avoid Hershey stuff unless I'm craving a Reese's, so this may not have too much effect on me. But I weep for the lost children who will have no idea what real chocolate tastes like and won't know what they're missing...

[itsacountry.livejournal.com]

Bah... I can't eat American chocolate anyhow. It's Belgian, or it's nothin'!

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Not even organic chocolates? Some of those are pretty good.

[sophy.livejournal.com]

Like anything Hershey's and the like make can be considered real chocolate anyway. :P~

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Hershey isn't exactly great chocolate. Still, I weep for the future, where people think they're eating chocolate and have no idea why it tastes so bleh.

[sophy.livejournal.com]

True, true.

[mariness.livejournal.com]

Consumers would know. We would most certainly know. And in a dangerous world like the one we inhabit today, does anybody really want to take the risk of providing people already on the edge of sanity with inferior chocolate?

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Consumers would know that something was different. But how many would think that the problem is with them? That their nostalgia made them think things used to be better? That their taste buds have grown dull with age?

[compostwormbin.livejournal.com]

And consumers would never know.

I'd know. I am picky about my chocolate. I am sure I'd taste the difference.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

People would know that chocolate didn't taste as good to them as it used to, but how many would think that the fault was with them? Many might think they'd just outgrown chocolate, or that nostalgia misled them into thinking it used to be better than it is now. If just one product got worse, that would be one thing; but if the whole category of cheap chocolate becomes lower-quality stuff, people may be more likely to think that they're the ones who have changed.

[compostwormbin.livejournal.com]

Yeah I can see that. Kind of like Pizza Hut not being as good as it was when I was a kid. For a while I had just assumed some of my tastebuds had died off.