fête à fête

I'd never thought I'd hear this, but the FDA wants to change the way chocolate is made in the US market. A nightmare for epicureans and chocolate lovers, this is a real tragic move for the chocolate industry if this moves forward. Members of the U.S. Chocolate industry want to change the basic formula of chocolate, allowing for vegetable fat substitutes instead of cocoa butter, and to use milk substitutes in place of real milk.

This petition was proposed by some larger chocolate companies to lower the costs of chocolate. This will lead to major confusion in regards to consumer choices on the shelf as well as possible changes in the present healthful aspects of chocolate -this is truly against all the positive things happening in the industry.

If approved, chocolate won't be in its naturally refined state anymore. Instead, we will be tasting inferior substitutes that will be filled with vegetable fats/trans fats and tasteless milk substitues. Trust me, the nasty 'chocolates' I've eaten in other countries are gross.

Guittard has a web site for people to protest a citizens petition that would allow a change in the standards of identity of chocolate.

To help, please go to:
http://dontmesswithourchocolate.guittard.com/ and voice your opinion. We need your help by April 25.