World Chocolate Day

07 Jul 2024

World Chocolate Day, celebrated on July 7^th, is set to commemorate the day that chocolate was first brought to Europe in the 16^th century.[1] Since then, people’s love of chocolate has spread across the globe and the chocolate industry has seen a great deal of innovation. But, for many, chocolate is not simply a treat to enjoy; in fact, over 40 million people around the world rely upon cocoa for their livelihood.[2] World Chocolate Day allows us to appreciate the difficult work involved in the growth and production of chocolate, understand the fascinating history of chocolate, and embrace the potential health benefits of cocoa flavanols found in chocolate.

Chocolate is made from the fruit of cacao trees, known as pods. Cacao beans are removed from the pods and undergo fermenting, drying, roasting, and winnowing, where the outer shell of the beans are removed, leaving the nibs to be utilized in chocolate production.[3] A fun fact on terminology – “cacao” is used to denote trees and their dried beans before roasting and grinding, and “cocoa” after processing.[4] Once isolated, the nibs are ground to create chocolate liquor, a thick paste that is not to be confused with alcoholic chocolate liqueur. Once the chocolate liquor is produced, chocolatiers manufacture chocolate to their liking.[5]

Fine chocolate, delineated from other chocolates by its flavour, texture, appearance, and limited ingredients, is divided into 3 categories – dark, milk, and white chocolate. Dark chocolate includes chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, lecithin, sugar, and vanilla. Milk chocolate consists of the same ingredients as dark chocolate, as well as milk products. White chocolate, alternatively, is made without the chocolate liquor but otherwise is made with all the same ingredients as milk chocolate.[6] For this reason, chocolatiers have long disputed whether white chocolate can be classified as chocolate. Due to its lack of chocolate liquor, white chocolate was classified by the United States (U.S.) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a confectionary until 2002, but following petitioning from industry and the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, it was reclassified as chocolate.[7]

The consumption of chocolate products dates back millennia when it was consumed as a drink by the world’s most ancient Mesoamerican civilizations, long before Europeans experimented and produced solid chocolate in the 1800s. The Central American Maya saw chocolate as highly valuable, and even sacred, using chocolate drinks in celebrations and to finalize important transactions. A later civilization, the Aztecs, believed that cacao came from their gods and was more valuable than gold, using cacao beans as a currency to buy food and other goods.[8] In the Aztec market, a tomato could be purchased in exchange for one cacao bean, and for 30 cacao beans, a rabbit.[9] Mesoamericans considered chocolate to be a specialty associated with prestige and high status, with Aztec ruler Montezuma II being well-known for allegedly drinking over 50 cups of chocolate every day![10] There is much debate over when chocolate first arrived in Europe, but it is believed to have arrived in the 16^th century from Central America.[11] 1641 marks the first record of chocolate in North America after its arrival in Florida on a Spanish ship, and the rest is history![12]

Although chocolate is well-known as a dessert food or snack, several scientific studies have acknowledged the nutritional qualities and potential health benefits of chocolate. Most of the research has focused on a special class of functional ingredients called cocoa flavanols. In 2012, the European Food Safety Authority found that there was sufficient scientific evidence that “Cocoa flavanols help maintain endothelium-dependent vasodilation, which contributes to normal blood flow”[13]. To achieve the benefit, the amount of cocoa flavanols that should be consumed daily is 200 mg, equivalent to 2.5 g of high-flavanol cocoa powder or 10 g of high-flavanol dark chocolate. More recently, the U.S. FDA concluded that “Very limited scientific evidence suggests that consuming cocoa flavanols in high flavanol cocoa powder, which contains at least 4% of naturally conserved cocoa flavanols, may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease”[14]. While additional studies are needed to assess the effects of cocoa flavanols on blood lipids and blood pressure (the outcomes considered by the U.S. FDA as surrogate measures of cardiovascular disease risk), there is preliminary evidence that cocoa flavanols are beneficial. So, help yourselves to some cocoa flavanol-rich chocolate and enjoy World Chocolate Day one bite at a time!

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