Category: News

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Keeping Chocolate Sweet While Cutting Sugar

Keeping Chocolate Sweet While Cutting Sugar

IFT.ORG

Penn State food scientist Gregory Ziegler experiments with substituting rice flour and/or oat flour to reduce the sugar content of chocolate. Ziegler says this indicates that there’s probably more sugar than needed in commercial chocolates and also that oat flour is a feasible sugar replacement. “You can take a product that’s already got some good health benefits; it’s got this neutral fat, you can get rid of some of the sugar, maintain some sweetness, but then add this fiber component through the starches,” he explains.

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Cocoa Breaks $10,000 Record, With Pricier Chocolate to Follow

Cocoa Breaks $10,000 Record, With Pricier Chocolate to Follow

FINANCE.YAHOO.COM

Cocoa futures surged above an unprecedented $10,000 a metric ton on Tuesday, March 26th, before erasing gains and taking a breather from a historic rally that has seen prices of the key chocolate ingredient double this year. The market is being rattled by poor crops in key West African growers that has put the world on course for a third straight annual supply deficit. The industry is grappling with the legacy of poor returns paid to cocoa farmers and fears are mounting about being able to source enough beans.

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How sweet it isn’t: Cocoa prices hit record highs ahead of Easter holiday

How sweet it isn’t: Cocoa prices hit record highs ahead of Easter holiday

CBSNEWS.COM

Cocoa futures have surged this year, roughly doubling since the start of 2024. Rising temperatures and weather conditions have stressed and damaged crops in West Africa, which produces more than 70% of the global cocoa supply. Big chocolate companies like Hershey’s and Cadbury maker Mondelez have been passing those costs on to consumers — and then some: Hershey’s net profit margins ticked higher to 16.7% in 2023 from 15.8% in 2022. Mondelez reported a jump to 13.8% in 2023 from 8.6% in 2022.

 

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Blommer Chocolate closing downtown Chicago manufacturing plant

Blommer Chocolate closing downtown Chicago manufacturing plant

ABC7CHICAGO.COM

Blommer Chocolate announced in a news release Friday that it would close its Chicago manufacturing plant and expand and transform other facilities. The Chicago facility, located at 600 W. Kinzie St., is the original manufacturing plant of the Blommer group, founded in 1939. The Chicago location opening in 1939 made Blommer the third largest industrial chocolate maker in the world.

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Why chocolate prices are likely to skyrocket soon

Why chocolate prices are likely to skyrocket soon

SALON.COM

According to Food & Wine, cocoa prices are at a 47-year high. What caused this? Inflation plays a part, but the bigger issue at hand is that cocoa cultivation in both Africa, specifically Ghana and the Ivory Coast, and Ecuador has reportedly become much more complicated due to drier weather patterns and rainfall changes. In addition, there was a shortage of cocoa “due to that unfavorable weather coupled with crop disease and smuggling” in Ghana; the smuggling is thought to have accounted for approximately 600 million in lost revenue as per the Agence France-Presse (AFP).

 

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Hey, Chocolate Lovers: New Study Traces Complex Origins of Cacao

Hey, Chocolate Lovers: New Study Traces Complex Origins of Cacao

NTD.COM

Scientists are getting a better taste of the early history of the domestication and use of cacao—the source of chocolate—thanks to residues detected on a batch of ancient ceramics from South and Central America. Using evidence from these artifacts, the researchers traced the rapid spread of cacao through trade routes after its initial domestication more than five millennia ago in Ecuador. They showed cacao’s dispersal to South America’s northwestern Pacific coast and later into Central America until it eventually reached Mexico 1,500 years later.

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Why chocolate is about to get a lot more expensive

Why chocolate is about to get a lot more expensive

AFR.COM

“Finer foods” such as chocolate and olive oil are about to get a lot more expensive thanks to a supply squeeze of key ingredients due to adverse weather and geopolitical unrest, fanning concerns about sticky inflation. Wet weather in West Africa has rocketed cocoa prices to all-time highs, making chocolate more expensive just before Easter.

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Spanish archaeologists uncovered a chocolate factory in a 14th century mansion

Spanish archaeologists uncovered a chocolate factory in a 14th century mansion

DESERET.COM

Construction in Barcelona revealed a medieval mansion unknown to archaeologists with remains of a chocolate factory still within it. A construction site in Spain last year accidentally uncovered the remains of a 14th century mansion that once housed a chocolate factory. The factory helped make renowned Clemente Guardia chocolates, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

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Chip by Chip, This Ice Cream Flavor Is Melting Away

Chip by Chip, This Ice Cream Flavor Is Melting Away

NYTIMES.COM

Chocolate chip ice cream, once a year-round staple, has fallen out of favor. Vanilla chocolate chip ice cream, once a staple of the ice cream world and one of the top sellers of all time, has fallen out of favor. The flavor can still be found, but it has been losing ground to flavors with more stuff, like cookies and cream and chocolate chip cookie dough. Communications specialist for Babcock Dairy Plant, which has 75 years of ice-cream making under its belt, in Madison, Wis. said that chocolate chip hasn’t been a staple for a decade – “Now it’s seasonal.” Meaning, made for summer only.

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Valentine’s Day chocolate prices highest in years amid cocoa shortage

Valentine’s Day chocolate prices highest in years amid cocoa shortage

CNBC.COM

Cocoa prices soared to all-time highs last week as deteriorating weather conditions and disease challenges hammered crop yields in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, home to 60% of the world’s production. Cocoa futures have surged nearly 40% since the start of the year to notch an intraday all-time high of $5,874 per metric ton Thursday. Prices of chocolates rose 11% in the past year, according to consumer intelligence database NielsenIQ, using data compiled through Jan. 27.

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US Chocolate Tasters Rank Whittaker’s Second To Last Worldwide And It’s Hard Not To Be Offended

US Chocolate Tasters Rank Whittaker’s Second To Last Worldwide And It’s Hard Not To Be Offended

MOREFM.CO.NZ

One US website has officially found a way to offend all Kiwis at once – claiming Whittaker’s is one of the worst chocolate brands worldwide. Tasting Table officially ranked 25 popular chocolate brands with Whittakers placing 24th, somehow slipping lower than the likes of Lindt, Kinder and Toblerone. (“The only reason Whittaker’s landed lower on the list is due to the shipping price for consumers outside of Australia or New Zealand,” the website states.)

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A Manhattan synagogue explores the rich, surprising history of Jews and chocolate

A Manhattan synagogue explores the rich, surprising history of Jews and chocolate

JTA.ORG

An exhibit detailing the rich history of Jews and chocolate in this country, “Sweet Treat: Chocolate and the Making of American Jews,” is on view at Manhattan’s Central Synagogue, where Deborah Prinz, author of the book, “On the Chocolate Trail: A Delicious Adventure Connecting Jews, Religions, History, Travel, Rituals and Recipes to the Magic of Cacao,” began her career as the Reform congregation’s first female rabbi.

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Why is chocolate bad for dogs and cats?

Why is chocolate bad for dogs and cats?

ABC27.COM

Dogs and cats love food, but they are not supposed to have certain foods such as coffee, chives, onions, grapes, and garlic. But one very dangerous food for both dogs and cats is something many humans love: chocolate. When it comes to chocolate, it is toxic for both dogs and cats. This is because chocolate contains a chemical called theobromine, which is used medicinally as a blood vessel dilator, heart stimulant, and for other purposes. To learn more, click HERE.

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Despite spooky Consumer Reports’ testing, metals in chocolates aren’t scary

Despite spooky Consumer Reports’ testing, metals in chocolates aren’t scary

ARSTECHNICA.COM

Chocolate is just not a big source of either lead or cadmium in diets! The news that chocolate contained lead and cadmium made waves last year. But, a closer look at the data—as well as reactions from actual medical toxicologists—indicates that the risk of heavy metals in chocolate is actually pretty low. CR used a very conservative threshold for determining “high” levels of the metals, which are not backed by major regulatory and health agencies, including the World Health Organization and the Food and Drug Administration. While pressuring chocolate companies to do more to keep contaminants out of our treats is a reasonable goal, this is not something anyone needs to fret about. For more details, click HERE.

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Prices for chocolate-making ingredient cocoa hit all-time highs

Prices for chocolate-making ingredient cocoa hit all-time highs

REUTERS.COM

Oct 17, 2023 – Prices for cocoa, the main ingredient used to make chocolate, rose to the highest ever on Tuesday as demand for the beans appears to be holding well despite the constant increase in costs, experts said. Financial investors were said to be the main driver of prices on the Intercontinental Exchange in London, where the March cocoa contract hit a peak of 3,155 pounds per metric ton, the highest price since cocoa futures started trading there in 1920. The March contract last traded 1% up at 3,140 pounds/ton.​

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Gatsby Chocolate Scores $500,000 Deal On Shark Tank

Gatsby Chocolate Scores $500,000 Deal On Shark Tank

CHEWBOOM.COM

Created by Doug Bouton, co-founder of Halo Top Ice Cream, and Ryan Bouton, the first employee of Halo Top Ice Cream, Gatsby Chocolate is determined to rewrite the rules of the chocolate industry, just as its predecessor transformed the world of ice cream. According to the company, Gatsby Chocolate boasts half the calories of premium chocolate brands like Godiva, Ghirardelli, and Lily’s, with 80-90 percent less sugar, carbs, and fat per serving.

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A return of chocolate-making to Marshall Field building

A return of chocolate-making to Marshall Field building

CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COM

For nearly 70 years, workers minted Frango chocolates on the 13th floor of the Marshall Field & Co. building on State Street. Frango production moved out of state in 1999 to the dismay of civic leaders and local mint chocolate aficionados. More than two decades later, chocolate has made its return to the upper floors of the building now anchored by the Macy’s department store, where candy giant Ferrero is opening its first North American research and development lab and innovation center.

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Chocolate for gut health? A nutritional psychiatrist shares what makes your gut happy.

Chocolate for gut health? A nutritional psychiatrist shares what makes your gut happy.

CBSNEWS.COM

Emerging science tells us we are what we eat in more ways than one. Not only does the food we consume impact our gut health, our gut health also impacts our brain and other body systems. In an interview with CBS News, Dr. Uma Naidoo, a nutritional psychiatrist and author of “This Is Your Brain on Food,” shared the key elements to include in your diet for boosting both physical and mental health – including chocolate!

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A truck carrying 40,000 pounds of chocolate catches fire on I-80 in California

A truck carrying 40,000 pounds of chocolate catches fire on I-80 in California

WYOMINGPUBLICMEDIA.ORG

Interstate 80 near Colfax, Calif., was recently America’s sweetest motorway. That’s because a truck there carrying 40,000 pounds of chocolate caught fire. Luckily, no injuries were reported, and firefighters were able to put out the fire quickly. The incident did, however, result in a humongous pile of melted chocolate on the road. Now, how sweet would it have been to have a truck hauling marshmallows and graham crackers show up?!

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Man who stole 200,000 chocolate eggs sentenced to 18 months in jail

Man who stole 200,000 chocolate eggs sentenced to 18 months in jail

WFTV9

A man in the United Kingdom who stole 200,000 Cadbury Creme Eggs weeks before Easter has been sentenced to 18 months in jail. Joby Pool, 32, stole about $40,000 worth of Cadbury Creme Eggs on Feb. 11. Pool broke into an industrial unit and took off with the chocolates in a stolen truck. Pool was sentenced to a year and a half in jail. Half of that time will be spent behind bars, with the other half on license along with the previous six months in custody counting toward his sentence.

 

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Reasons Not To Take Chocolate For Granted

Reasons Not To Take Chocolate For Granted

FORBES.COM

“Chocolate” represents a diverse category of products with distinctive and delicious flavors, often with pleasant “mouth feel,” and a range of sweetness. These items are mostly enjoyed as luxury foods and beverages, but for many people, chocolate is a “priority indulgence.” For now, these items are available and relatively affordable, but that isn’t something that should be taken for granted.

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Hundred-year-old chocolate from King Edward VII’s coronation to go on sale

Hundred-year-old chocolate from King Edward VII’s coronation to go on sale

YOUTUBE

A tin of Cadbury chocolates that has been perfectly preserved for 121 years will go to auction soon. The confectionery was originally given to nine-year-old Mary Ann Blackmore to celebrate the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra on June 26 1902. Cadbury adorned the special tins of vanilla chocolates with the two monarchs to mark the event. Blackmore kept the chocolates in tact for her entire life; her family have now brought the treats to Hanson’s Auctioneers in Derby. Auctioneer Morven Fairlie said: “If you do open the tin, it does smell of chocolate, but I wouldn’t want to risk it.”

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Bill introduced to keep chocolate milk in schools

Bill introduced to keep chocolate milk in schools

RFDTV.COM

Rep. Tom Tiffany, a Republican from Wisconsin, introduced legislation to stop the White House from excluding flavored milk in schools. The MILK Act, which stands for “Milk is Indisputably Liked by Kids,” proposes amending the National School Lunch Act to require schools to offer flavored milk in their lunch programs. “The Biden administration wants to exclude chocolate milk from being offered at schools across America. We believe that milk should be offered, including chocolate milk,” Rep. Tiffany said. “In fact, I think it’s a great tradition. I remember back when I was in school—every Friday, we had chocolate milk.”

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Chocolate is set to get more expensive as cocoa prices soar to seven-year highs

Chocolate is set to get more expensive as cocoa prices soar to seven-year highs

CNBS.COM

Chocolate prices have risen by 14% in the past year, according to consumer intelligence database NielsenIQ. Sugar, another principal ingredient of chocolate, is also seeing price spikes — breaching an 11-year high in April. Among the different varieties of chocolate, prices of dark will reportedly be the hardest hit.

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El Niño Could Make Chocolate More Expensive

El Niño Could Make Chocolate More Expensive

TIME.COM

Production of cocoa beans in West Africa — the largest growing region — may fall in the next season by as much as 8% on adverse weather, according to Fuad Mohammed Abubakar, head of Ghana Cocoa Marketing Company. Cocoa prices already surged to the highest in seven years this season following a disappointing harvest in top exporter Ivory Coast that worsened the global deficit.

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Chocolate lovers are left stunned to discover how Hershey’s Kisses really got their name

Chocolate lovers are left stunned to discover how Hershey’s Kisses really got their name

DAILYMAIL.CO.UK

Hershey’s Kisses are instantly recognizable as being the flat-bottom tear drops wrapped in foil. And they always have a strip of parchment paper – called a ‘plume’ – completing the aesthetic. As with many success stories, there are multiple versions of how the distinctive confectionery got its iconic name. But the one theory that seems to be most widely accepted is that it is all to do with the sound and motion of the machines that make the sweet treat. Not only does the dispenser appear to ‘kiss’ the convey belt as it deposits the chocolate but also makes a similar ‘kissing’ sound during production.