Organic chocolate is chocolate which has been certified organic. As of 2016, it was a growing sector in the global chocolate industry. Organic chocolate is a socially-desirable product for some consumers. [1] [2] Major brands, such as The Hershey Company, have begun to produce organic chocolate. [3]
Many, if not most, producers of organic chocolate source their ingredients from certified fair trade cocoa farms and cooperatives. [4] Organic chocolate comes in many varieties, including milk chocolate, white chocolate, and dark chocolate. Major brands of organic chocolate include Britain-based Green & Black's, Hershey-owned Dagoba Chocolate, and Equal Exchange. [5] Less-known retailers include Taza Chocolate, Pacari Chocolate, and Sacred Chocolate, a brand noted for producing raw chocolate. [6]
The Seattle-based chocolate maker Theo Chocolate was one of the first companies that were "fair-trade certified" and produced Organic Chocolate. In 2006 Theo Chocolate began their production of organic chocolate, there were no solid guidelines for the manufacturing and they had to get the process and ingredients in the correct measurements. The main ingredient in chocolate, cocoa is going to be found close to the equator and the majority of it is grown in Western Africa. The organic cocoa, the main ingredient in organic chocolate, is sent to the chocolate factor where they arrive in burlap sacks. The cocoa beans are then thoroughly cleaned and foreign objects are removed until just the beans remain. The manufacturer makes sure to use all organic ingredients to ensure that the final product is truly organic. [7]
Chocolate is a food product made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels, that is available as a liquid, solid or paste, on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civilization, and the majority of Mesoamerican people ─ including the Maya and Aztecs ─ made chocolate beverages.
Fair trade is an arrangement designed to help producers in growing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. The fair trade movement combines the payment of higher prices to exporters with improved social and environmental standards. The movement focuses in particular on commodities, or products that are typically exported from developing countries to developed countries, but is also used in domestic markets, most notably for handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, wine, sugar, fruit, flowers, and gold.
The cocoa bean or simply cocoa, also called the cacao bean or cacao, is the dried and fully fermented seed of Theobroma cacao, from which cocoa solids and cocoa butter can be extracted. Cocoa beans are the basis of chocolate, and Mesoamerican foods including tejate, an indigenous Mexican drink that also includes maize.
The Hershey Company, commonly known as Hershey's, is an American multinational company and one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world. It also manufactures baked products, such as cookies and cakes, and sells beverages like milkshakes, and many more that are produced globally. Its headquarters are in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is also home to Hersheypark and Hershey's Chocolate World. It was founded by Milton S. Hershey in 1894 as the Hershey Chocolate Company, a subsidiary of his Lancaster Caramel Company. The Hershey Trust Company owns a minority stake but retains a majority of the voting power within the company.
Milk chocolate is a solid chocolate confectionery containing cocoa, sugar and milk. Chocolate was originally sold and consumed as a beverage in pre-Columbian times, and upon its introduction to Western Europe. Major milk chocolate producers include Ferrero, Hershey, Mondelez, Mars and Nestlé. Between them, they are responsible for over half of the chocolate sold worldwide. Although four-fifths of all milk chocolate is sold in the United States and Europe, increasingly large amounts are consumed in China and Latin America. While taste and texture have been key to its success, milk chocolate has also historically been promoted as a healthy food, particularly for children. Recent evidence has shown that it may provide antioxidant health benefits.
Scharffen Berger is an American chocolate manufacturing company, which was a subsidiary of The Hershey Company after it had been acquired in 2005. Scharffen Berger was established as an independent Berkeley, California-based chocolate maker in 1996 by sparkling wine maker John Scharffenberger and physician Robert Steinberg.
Reese's Take 5 is a candy bar that was released by The Hershey Company in December 2004. The original name of the candy bar was TAKE5 but common usage among consumers added a space. In June 2019, when the candy bar became part of the Reese's family, the name officially was changed to Reese's Take 5. The "5" in the name refers to the combination of five ingredients: chocolate, peanuts, caramel, peanut butter, and pretzels. This unique combination of ingredients earned Reese's Take 5 top honors in the 2019 LA Times official candy bar power rankings. On February 2, 2020, Hershey's announced the creation of the world's largest chocolate and nut candy bar with a 5,943 pound bar measuring 9 feet in length. The Take5 was known as Max 5 in Canada but has since been discontinued. Take5 has returned to Canada in the fall of 2020, under the name "Oh Henry Level Up".
Raw chocolate, or raw ground chocolate paste when ground, is chocolate produced from unroasted cocoa beans that does not contain any additives like sugars.
Green & Black's is a British chocolate company founded in 1991. The company produces a range of organic food products, including: chocolate bars, ice cream, biscuits and hot chocolate.
Ivory Coast and Ghana, together, during the 2018/19 cocoa-growing season, research commissioned by the U.S Department of Labor was conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago in these two countries and found that 1.48 million children are engaged in hazardous work on cocoa farms including working with sharp tools and agricultural chemicals and carrying heavy loads. That number of children is significant, representing 43 percent of all children living in agricultural households in cocoa growing areas. During the same period cocoa production in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana increased 62 percent while the prevalence of child labour in cocoa production among all agricultural households increased 14 percentage points. Attention on this subject has focused on West Africa, which collectively supplies 69% of the world's cocoa, Côte d'Ivoire in particular, supplying 35%. The 2016 Global Estimates of Child Labour indicate that one-fifth of all African children are involved in child labour. Nine percent of African children are in hazardous work. It is estimated that more than 1.8 million children in West Africa are involved in growing cocoa. A 2013–14 survey commissioned by the Department of Labor and conducted by Tulane University found that an estimated 1.4 million children aged 5 years old to 11 years old worked in agriculture in cocoa-growing areas, while approximately 800,000 of them were engaged in hazardous work, including working with sharp tools and agricultural chemicals and carrying heavy loads. According to the NORC study, methodological differences between the 2018/9 survey and earlier ones, together with errors in the administration of the 2013/4 survey have made it challenging to document changes in the number of children engaged in child labour over the past five years.
"Big Chocolate" is a business term assigned to multi-national chocolate food producers, akin to the terms "Big Oil," "Big Pharma," and "Big Tobacco".
Wilbur Chocolate is one of four brands manufactured by Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate North America. Most of the Wilbur brand products were produced in plants chocolate manufacturing company located in Lititz, Pennsylvania. Wilbur Chocolate was founded in Philadelphia in 1865 by Henry Oscar Wilbur and Samuel Croft. Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate NA produces hundreds of millions of pounds of chocolate and confectionery products a year. These ingredients are sold to food and candy manufactures across the Americas.
Chocolate is a food product made from roasted and ground cocoa pods mixed with fat and powdered sugar to produce a solid confectionery. There are several types of chocolate, classified primarily according to the proportion of cocoa and fat content used in a particular formulation.
Alter Eco refers to two alternative trading organizations, founded in 1998 by Tristan Lecomte in France, and followed by Mathieu Senard and Eduoard Rollet in the United States, and Ilse Keijzer in Australia.
Natra is an international company and one of the leading European producers and distributors of chocolate products and cocoa ingredients, focusing on private label with the leading retail and Co-manufacturing for the global brands.
Dagoba Organic Chocolate is a brand of organic chocolate founded in 2001 by Frederick Schilling. It has been owned by The Hershey Company since 2006. The brand's founders are no longer involved but Hershey has maintained the brand's factory in Ashland, Oregon. The name Dagoba is Sinhalese from dhatu-garbha, Sanskrit words for "hemispherical dome" i.e.stupa. The brand was founded with a commitment to socially responsible business. Like coffee, the production of chocolate retains vestiges of colonial relationships, so issues of social equity and "fair trade" arise. All Dagoba products are organic, Non-GMO Certified, and Rainforest Alliance Certified.
Fair trade cocoa is an agricultural product harvested from a cocoa tree using a certified process which is followed by cocoa farmers, buyers, and chocolate manufacturers, and is designed to create sustainable incomes for farmers and their families. Companies that use fair trade certified cocoa to create products can advertise that they are contributing to social, economic, and environmental sustainability in agriculture.
Theo Chocolate is an American chocolate maker headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Established in 2006, it is the first organic fair trade-certified cocoa producer in the United States.
The chocolate industry in the Philippines developed after introducing the cocoa tree into Philippine agriculture. The growing of cacao or cocoa boasts a long history stretching from the colonial times. Originating from Mesoamerican forests, cacao was first introduced by the Spanish colonizers four centuries ago. Since then the Philippine cocoa industry has been the primary producer of cocoa beans in the Southeast Asia. There are many areas of production of cacao in the Philippines, owing to soil and climate. The chocolate industry is currently on a small to medium scale.
Bean-to-bar is a trade model that was born from the artisan and craft chocolate movement representative of an individual company buying ethically sourced cocoa beans to make high-quality integral chocolate. The term refers to the upper portion of the cacao to chocolate supply chain, it is a legal labelling concept for many chocolate brands and is clearly defined as the consistent manufacturing process of taking whole cocoa beans to make chocolate bars that are ready to eat. Bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturers control the roasting time, sugar content, fat content, additives, flavor ingredients, texture and can even enrich the flavor sensory experience through adding essential oils to create hundreds of flavors, types and classes of chocolate through their businesses. Bean-to-bar is a term that has become synonymous with craft, fine, high-quality, natural and nutritional chocolate.
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