legal issues
UK food labelling laws are very specific about what can and cannot be called chocolate.
Chocolate is any product made from cocoa nibs, cocoa mass, cocoa, fat-reduced cocoa or any combination of two or more of these ingredients, with or without extracted cocoa butter and sucrose.
Dark Chocolate must not contain less than 35% total dry cocoa solids, of which at least 14% must be dry non-fat cocoa solids.
Milk chocolate must either be:
- 20:20, with a minimum of 20% dry cocoa solids (of which 2.5% non-fat cocoa solids) and a minimum of 20% milk solids (minimum 5% milk fat). Dairy Milk is this type of milk chocolate
- 14:25, with a minimum of 25% dry cocoa solids (of which 2.5% non-fat cocoa solids) and a minimum of 14% milk solids (minimum 3.5% milk fat). This type of milk chocolate can be called "European or coating chocolate".
The Food Standards Agency is responsible for checking that the law is upheld on the safety of materials that come into contact with food (e.g. food processing machinery and packaging) and food labelling. Labels must contain certain information, e.g. the product’s name, the company’s name, a list of ingredients, special storage instructions). Companies have to make sure they know what the law is and that they conform to it.
