Bid to define the essence of chocolate taxes experts

Date: 12/12/1996

By Simon Coss

ITALY and Spain are set to have their wrists slapped by the European Commission for allegedly disobeying EU rules on the definition of chocolate.

The Commission is considering sending warning letters to the two governments for labelling certain products as 'chocolate substitutes' rather than chocolate. The products in question contain a small proportion of vegetable fats instead of 100&percent; cocoa butter.

The Commission argues that this is in contravention of EU internal market directives concerning the free movement and labelling of foodstuffs.

Officials claim member states can only alter the name of a food product if its ingredients cause it to “be so significantly different from the point of view of composition ... from products generally known by the same name within the [European] Community that it could not be considered as belonging to the same category [of products]”.

According to the Commission, the fact that there is vegetable fat other than cocoa butter in the Spanish and Italian chocolate makes no discernible difference to the taste or appearance of the product.

The episode is just another twist in the saga of trying to establish an EU directive defining 'chocolate' once and for all. Member states, the European Parliament and the Commission have been trying to agree on a common definition for 23 years, since a 1973 directive on chocolate and chocolate products.

The crux of the Commission's latest proposal is that the name chocolate could be used for any products containing up to 5&percent; vegetable fat. The precise vegetable fat content would have to be clearly marked in a list of ingredients.

This proposal is currently being scrutinised by MEPs, who are likely to complete their first reading sometime next spring. But it has already been rejected by the Parliament's development committee, with members arguing it would seriously damage the economies of third world cocoa producers. It is thought that the environment committee will return a similar verdict when it discusses the measures shortly.

Member states are divided into two camps over the issue. Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands oppose the proposal. All have significant 'quality' chocolate industries which ban the use of vegetable fats and insist that only products made with 100&percent; cocoa butter can bear the name chocolate.

Seven other member states support the change, including Denmark, Sweden, the UK and Austria, all of whom currently allow vegetable fats to be used in chocolate production.