(no subject)

[furrbear]

HERSHEY'S The Great American Something Bar???

Let Hershey know how you feel about their dropping cocoa butter from their "chocolate" products (I had to use air quotes - it's not chocolate without cocoa butter). I told them that I was extremely disappointed and wouldn't buy or eat another Hershey product until they reversed themselves on this.

CHOCOLATE THAT ISN’T

Friday, September 26, 2008
Posted by Jim Hightower

Listen to this Commentary

Be careful out there. The corporate powers are messing with us again.

Here comes Hershey, the iconic candy company that claims to be “committed to making the world’s best chocolate.” For example, such brands as Mr. Goodbar, Milk Duds, and Take Five brag right on the label that they’re “made with chocolate.” Only … they’re not.

Chocolate, as you probably know, is made of cocoa butter. It’s yummy stuff. But get out your magnifying glass to read the labels of the Hershey bars that claim to be “made with chocolate,” and you’ll find oils from palm kernels, soybeans, sunflower, and safflower listed – but no cocoa butter. None.

How can this be? Trying to find the logic of it will cause your brain to explode, but here is the essence of the deception. The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates candy contents, says flatly that cocoa butter is the required fat for chocolate. However – under pressure from most of the industry’s big players, the FDA allows the use of such tricky phrases as “made with chocolate,” “chocolately,” and “chocolate candy” to label products that actually have zero of the good stuff in them.

It is, in other words, a government-sanctioned consumer fraud. But the industry wants to deepen the fraud by getting FDA regulators to alter the very definition of chocolate so that it no longer mentions cocoa butter. It’d be like saying that wineries could eliminate grapes and still label their product “wine.” A spokesman for the big candy makers' lobbying group says that their attempt to pervert plain language is necessary in order to “modernize” FDA’s rules and “accommodate innovation.”

It's more like accommodating a blatant consumer rip-off. The good news is that independent chocolatiers and consumers are in rebellion against this sneaky push for non-chocolate chocolate. To learn what’s going on with your own favorite chocolates, check out www.candyblog.org.

“Chocolate Lovers Pained by Candy Changes,” www.abcnews.com, September 2, 2008.

Comments

It makes lousy fudge too!!!

[bearbarry.livejournal.com]

I noticed a few years back that my fudge recipe wasn't turning out like it should. It wouldn't set firm, and it seemed very oily. That was when I noticed that the big chocolate chip makers like Hershey's, Nestle, and Ghirardelli had ALL removed the cocoa butter from their chips and replaced it with palm kernel oil. However, the store brands of chocolate chips like Sam's Choice at Wal*Mart still has cocoa butter, and they are cheaper too. Lately I've noticed that the cocoa butter has made its way back into the name brands. I probably wasn't the only one who figured it out because the store brands of chocolate chips sold out last Christmas while the name brands sat on the shelf.

Re: It makes lousy fudge too!!!

[grizzlyzone.livejournal.com]

I actually saw that and read up on it. It's called PGPR. It let's them make thinner chocolate bars.

Re: It makes lousy fudge too!!!

[bearbarry.livejournal.com]

Over the past 20 years, Carnation has knocked 4 ounces off the size of a can of condensed milk & dropped the fat content to the point that it looks like skim milk. Parkay turned its margarine into a spread by adding gelatin and more water. McCormick uses a lower quality of orchid to produce a less fragrant vanilla. For a while, Jif peanut butter was even unfit to eat. I have found that using "cheaper" store brands works better for my 50+ year old fudge recipe. It still makes great fudge when you can compensate for all the changes in the ingredients.

Oh, since PGPR is derived from the castor bean, let's hope they never screw up and brew up a batch of ricin by mistake. www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricin

Re: It makes lousy fudge too!!!

[grizzlyzone.livejournal.com]

In the case of Parkay, Kraft sold off the rights to it a few years back. It's no longer the same manufacturer.

A while back ago, I bought some Nabisco Ginger Snaps. The new manufacturing process embosses the characteristic cracks into the cookie, rather then letting them arise in the baking process.

Somehow, I remember Ginger Snaps as being hard as a ceramic kitchen tile, with enough ginger in them to burn your tongue.

[martini-tim.livejournal.com]

I think chocolate lovers are the last people you should try to fool. We know good chocolate, and we know good ingredients. I guess I'll just eat European chocolate from now on.

[grizzlyzone.livejournal.com]

...and wouldn't buy or eat another Hershey product...

That may have worked in the old days, but I'm afraid that the MBAs would look at that and go, "So?"

[popebuck1.livejournal.com]

Last I heard, Hershey was still using real chocolate in their two "showcase" items - the Hershey bar and the Reese cup - and switching to "chocolate-like substance" for their lesser items, like Mr. Goodbar, Krackel, etc.

But hey, if they want to shoot themselves in the foot by degrading their own product, I guess I can't stop them. But as others have pointed out, chocolate lovers know when they're not getting the real thing. You mess with us at your own peril.