I have fond memories of the Cadbury chocolate factory in Dunedin, NZ. They offered free tours of the factory which I and my fellow starving student friends would attend – with just one thing on our mind – the free samples! In the early 80’s they were particularly generous and we would come away laden with enough chocolate to keep us munching for at least a couple of days.

But my rosy memories have been ruined this week. Cadbury’s are replacing some of the cocoa butter with palm oil to cut costs. All the media attention seems to be on palm oil’s effect on the environment but I am disappointed for a different reason: yet another food is losing its authenticity. Oh, I know palm oil gives the chocolate a smooth mouth-feel but when I eat chocolate, I want to eat real chocolate made from cocoa butter, not vegetable oil.

We do this with so many foods – water them down, bulk them out, add some flavouring to make them taste like the original food – all to make them cheaper so we can stuff more in our mouths. Then we feed it to our kids and they grow up enjoying these less than natural flavours. When they become adults why would they want to pay more for real juice, real bread, real chocolate?

No wonder we have a serious problem with obesity. We’re doing the exact opposite of the French secret to staying slim. In true French style, I can satisfy my chocolate craving with a couple of squares of dark, flavonoid rich, real chocolate. But with the sweeter, cheaper stuff it’s easy to gobble up half a block before the guilt light flashes on. And when you read about the health aspects of chocolate, they are talking about real chocolate made with cocoa butter.

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Related:

KFC dumps palm oil

Cadbury leaves a bitter taste

Palm oil blend to replace cocoa butter?