BS: Changing Chocolate

Subject: BS: Changing Chocolate
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Apr 07 - 01:05 PM

From the Sheldon comic strip email:

Don't Let the FDA Change the Definition of "Chocolate"

in News by DaveKellett
Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 12:04 PM
Let me be honest here: I eat a lot of chocolate. More than I should, no doubt. But I love the stuff, and I'm not the only one. As umpteen-thousand brain studies have shown, real chocolate causes a wonderful cascading effect in the human brain...of joy and warmth and well-being and awesomeness.

If you agree on that point -- the essential awesomeness of chocolate -- I'd ask that you lend a hand. Take a second out of your day to tell the FDA not to water down the legal definition of "chocolate". As Cybele May writes in today's LA Times and in her Candy Blog, a consortium of food industry groups is looking to widen the definition of chocolate to include products made from vegetable fats and oils...not just real cocoa butter.

You know what kind of "chocolate" that is. You've bitten into it and known immediately. It's that fake, waxy, powdery "chocolate-flavored" stuff that sits there for weeks after the first bite...because it tastes like foot powder. It's the weird-brand Easter bunny that no one wants. It's the fake M&Ms that taste like pebbles. It's the chocolate chip that tastes like a tooth filling gone wrong.

Giving food manufacturers the ability to label products under this expanded "chocolate" label doesn't mean Nestle and Hershey and Cadbury will suddenly change their core recipes -- they'd be fools to do it, in the worst tradition of Coke II. But it makes you wonder what future "chocolate" products will be coming down the line? Should we have to guess whether or not those products are actually chocolate? Of course not. So take a second and let the FDA know.

Subject: RE: BS: Changing Chocolate
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Apr 07 - 10:45 PM

As a person who doesn't eat chocolate I am horrified at the idea. There is so much fake food around we don't need any more.

I once bought a colleague a beautiful handmade choccie when she was very upset that a give away Valentine's Day choccie was such a boring piece of confectionary.

Valentine's Day is her wedding anniversary & as she had left home with no anniversary greeting/pressie, or mention of a dinner booking from her husband, she really needed that choccie.

However, by the time I got back with it, he had called & revealed his plan for a wonderful dinner. I bet he never kept anniversary plans secret again!!

sandra

ps. she loved the handmade choccie.

Subject: RE: BS: Changing Chocolate
From: Peace
Date: 20 Apr 07 - 10:54 PM

Africa: Chocolate Consumers Turn Ethical

The Nation (Nairobi)

April 16, 2007
Posted to the web April 16, 2007

Chege Mbitiru
Nairobi

Some British do-gooders spiced Easter celebrations. They mixed chocolate with slavery. Apparently, many Britons munch plenty of chocolate during Easter and need a clear conscience.

Stop the Traffic, an anti-slavery coalition, didn't mention the Transatlantic slave trade, perpetual pre-occupation of African-Americans. The coalition wanted chocolate manufacturers to declare their product "traffic-free" so that consumers would know they aren't supporting child slave labour, the BBC reported.

ILO report

Cause of concern arose from an International Labour Organisation report. It said 12,000 children have been trafficked to Cote d'Ivoire to harvest cocoa.

The West African nation produces the world's largest cocoa crop, chocolate's main ingredient.

Concerned about cash registers jamming, the Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionery Association said human trafficking is unacceptable. The association, therefore, plans eight-million Pound Sterling a year certification and monitoring scheme to guarantee "traffic free" chocolates.

The background to the saga was the marking of 200 years since British Parliament, by law, abolished slavery throughout the then mighty empire. Many nations followed. Today no nation permits slavery as known to abolitionist William Wilberforce. However, slavery is far from gone. That's what Stop the Traffik reminded sweet-toothed Britons.

Mr Kevin Bales, author of a book titled Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy, writes approximately 27 million slaves are toiling in the world today. Some anti-slavery activists argue that's a conservative figure. The number is close to 200 million. Anyway, according to Mr. Bale there are more slaves alive today than all the people stolen from Africa during the Transatlantic slave trade.

Linguistically, ILO reports are ponderous. However, figures are noticeable. In a report last May, the UN body said 12.3 million slaves toil today worldwide. The industrialised world host 350,000 of the lot. Of all the forced workers, 2.4 million are victims of trafficking. They generate profits of over $30 billion annually.

These slaves have a few things in common: they are poor, least educated, a majority are women and children, other people own their labour; they cannot change jobs or leave at will and are abused and humiliated.

More to it here.

Subject: RE: BS: Changing Chocolate
From: Gurney
Date: 21 Apr 07 - 03:45 AM

The choccy eggs I was given this Easter tasted as if they contained a soupcon of licorice.



What does rat poison taste of?

Subject: RE: BS: Changing Chocolate
From: Gurney
Date: 21 Apr 07 - 03:48 AM

Liquorice to Poms. Her Indoors picked me up.

Subject: RE: BS: Changing Chocolate
From: Leadfingers
Date: 21 Apr 07 - 04:39 AM

"When you're feeling down , the best way up is chocolate"

Marcus Turner !