Cocoa and Chocolate Part 16

AVERAGE COMPOSITION AND FUEL VALUE OF ENGLISH EATING CHOCOLATE.

_Composition_ _Energy-giving power_

_Calories per lb._ Cacao b.u.t.ter 31.4 = 1,327 Protein (total nitrogen 0.78%) 4.1 = 76 Cacao Starch 2.3 } = 162 Other Digestible Carbohydrates, etc. 6.4 } Stimulants { Theobromine 0.3 { Caffein 0.1 Mineral Matter 1.2 Crude Fibre 0.9 Moisture 1.0 Sugar 52.3 = 973 ----- ----- 100.0 2,538

In Snyder's _Human Foods_ (1916) the official a.n.a.lyses of 163 common foods are given. They include practically everything that human beings eat, and only three are greater than chocolate in energy-giving power.

The result (2,538 calories per lb.) which we obtain by calculation is lower than the figure (2,768 calories per lb.) for chocolate given by Sherman in his book on _Food and Nutrition_ (1918). Probably his figure is for unsweetened chocolate. The table below shows the energy-giving value of cocoa and chocolate compared with well-known foodstuffs. The figures (save for "eating" chocolate) are taken from Sherman's book, and are calculated from the a.n.a.lyses given in Bulletin 28 of the United States Department of Agriculture:

FUEL VALUE OF FOODSTUFFS.

_Foodstuff as _Calories Purchased._ per lb._ Cabbage 121 Cod Fish 209 Apples 214 Potatoes 302 Milk 314 Eggs 594 Beef Steak 960 Bread (average white) 1,180 Oatmeal 1,811 Sugar 1,815 Cocoa 2,258 Eating Chocolate 2,538

[Ill.u.s.tration: PACKING CHOCOLATES AT BOURNVILLE.]

_Food Value of Milk Chocolate._

The value of milk as a food is so generally recognised as to need no commendation here. When milk is evaporated to a dry solid, about 87.5 per cent. of water is driven off, so that the dry milk left has about eight times the food value of the original milk. Milk chocolate of good quality contains from 15 to 25 per cent. of milk solids. Milk chocolate varies greatly in composition, but for the purpose of calculating the food value, we may a.s.sume that about a quarter of a high-cla.s.s milk chocolate consists of solid milk, and this is combined with about 40 per cent. of cane sugar and 35 per cent. of cacao b.u.t.ter and cacao ma.s.s.

a.n.a.lYSIS AND FUEL VALUE OF MILK CHOCOLATE.

_Energy-giving power._ _Calories per lb._

Milk Fat and Cacao b.u.t.ter 35.0 = 1,480 Milk and Cocoa Proteins 8.0 = 149 Cacao Starch and Digestible Carbohydrates 3.0 = 56 Stimulants (Theobromine and Caffein) 0.2 Mineral Matter 2.0 Crude Fibre 0.3 Moisture 1.5 Milk Sugar and Cane Sugar 50.0 = 930 ----- ----- 100.0 = 2,615 ----- -----

It will be noted that the food value of milk chocolate is even greater than that of plain chocolate. It is highly probable that milk chocolate is the most nutritious of all sweetmeats. It is not generally recognised that when we purchase one pound of high-cla.s.s milk chocolate we obtain three-quarters of a pound of chocolate and two pounds of milk!

CHAPTER IX

ADULTERATION AND THE NEED FOR DEFINITIONS

Those that mix maize in the Chocolate do very ill, for they beget bilious and melancholy humours.

_A Curious Treatise on the Nature and Quality of Chocolate_, Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma, 1685.

COCOA.

Cocoa might conveniently be defined as consisting exclusively of sh.e.l.led, roasted, finely-ground cacao beans, partially de-fatted, with or without a minute quant.i.ty of flavouring material.

The gross adulteration of cocoa is now a thing of the past, and most of the cocoa sold conforms with this definition. Statements, however, get copied from book to book, and hence we continue to read that cocoa usually contains arrowroot or other starch. In the old days this was frequently so, but now, owing to many legal actions by Public Health Authorities, this abuse has been stamped out. Nowadays if a Public a.n.a.lyst finds flour or arrowroot in a sample bought as cocoa, he describes it as adulterated, and the seller is prosecuted and fined.

Hence, save for the presence of cacao sh.e.l.l, the cocoa of the present day is a pure article consisting simply of roasted, finely-ground cacao beans partially de-fatted. The princ.i.p.al factors affecting the quality of the finished cocoa are the difference in the kind of cacao bean used, the amount of cacao b.u.t.ter extracted, the care in preparation, and the amount of cacao sh.e.l.l left in.

The presence of more than a small percentage of sh.e.l.l in cocoa is a disadvantage both on the ground of taste and of food value. This has been recognised from the earliest times (see quotations on p. 128). In the Cocoa Powder Order of 1918, the amount of sh.e.l.l which a cocoa powder might contain was defined--_grade A_ not to contain more than two per cent. of sh.e.l.l, and _grade B_ not more than five per cent. of sh.e.l.l. The manufacturers of high-cla.s.s cocoa welcomed these standards, but unfortunately the known a.n.a.lytical methods are not delicate enough to estimate accurately such small quant.i.ties, so that any external check is difficult, and the purchaser has to trust to the honesty of the manufacturer. Hence it is wise to purchase cocoa only from makers of good repute.

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 const.i.tuents 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 ma.s.s_ must be prepared exclusively from roasted, sh.e.l.led, finely-ground cacao beans, with or without the addition of a small quant.i.ty of flavouring matter, and should not contain less than 45 per cent. of cacao b.u.t.ter.

(2) Sweetened chocolate or _chocolate_.--A preparation consisting exclusively of the products of roasted, sh.e.l.led, finely-ground cacao beans, and not more than 65 per cent. of sugar, with or without a small quant.i.ty 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, sh.e.l.led cacao beans, sugar, and not less than 15 per cent. of the dry solids of full-cream milk, with or without a small quant.i.ty of harmless flavouring matter.

Mr. Booth further states that starch other than that naturally present in the cacao bean, and cacao sh.e.l.l in powder form, should be absolutely excluded from any article which is to be sold under the name of "chocolate."

CHAPTER X

THE CONSUMPTION OF CACAO

The Kernels that come to us from the Coast of _Caraqua_, are more oily, and less bitter, than those that come from the _French_ Islands, and in _France_ and _Spain_ they prefer them to these latter. But in _Germany_ and in the _North_ (_Fides sit penes autorem_) they have a quite opposite Taste.

Several People mix that of _Caraqua_ with that of the Islands, half in half, and pretend by this Mixture to make the Chocolate better. I believe in the bottom, the difference of Chocolates is not considerable, since they are only obliged to increase or diminish the Proportion of Sugar, according as the Bitterness of the Kernels require it.

_The Natural History of Chocolate_, R. Brookes, 1730.

The war has caused such a disturbance that the statistics for the years of the war are difficult to obtain. For many years the German publication, the _Gordian_, was the most reliable source of cacao statistics, and so far we have nothing in England sufficiently comprehensive to replace it, although useful figures can be obtained from the Board of Trade returns of imports into Great Britain, from Mr.

Theo. Vasmer's reports which appear from time to time in _The Confectioners' Union_ and elsewhere, from Mr. Hamel Smith's collated material in _Tropical Life_, and from the reports of important brokers like Messrs. Woodhouse. In 1919 the _Bulletin of the Imperial Inst.i.tute_ gave a very complete _resume_ of cacao production as far as the British Empire is concerned.

_Great Britain._