Chocolate is a range of products derived from cocoa (cacao), mixed with fat (i.e. cocoa butter

Cocoa butter

Cocoa butter, also called theobroma oil, is a pale-yellow, pure edible vegetable fat extracted from the cocoa bean. It is used to make chocolate, biscuits, and baked goods, as well as some pharmaceuticals, ointments, and toiletries...

 and/or plant oils) and finely powdered sugar

Powdered sugar

Powdered sugar, also known as confectioners' sugar or icing sugar, is very fine sugar. When intended for home use, it typically contains a small amount of anti-caking agent....

 to produce a solid confection. There are several types of chocolate

Chocolate

Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...

 according to the proportion of cocoa used in a particular formulation.

The use of particular name designations is sometimes subject to governmental regulation.

Terminology

The cocoa bean (or other alternative) products from which chocolate is made are known under different names in different parts of the world. In the America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n chocolate industry:

• chocolate liquor
  Chocolate liquor
  Chocolate liquor is pure chocolate in its liquid form. Like the cocoa beans from which it is produced, it contains both cocoa solids and cocoa butter in roughly equal proportion....
  
   is the ground or melted state of the nib of the cacao bean
• cocoa butter
  Cocoa butter
  Cocoa butter, also called theobroma oil, is a pale-yellow, pure edible vegetable fat extracted from the cocoa bean. It is used to make chocolate, biscuits, and baked goods, as well as some pharmaceuticals, ointments, and toiletries...
  
   is the fat
  Fat
  Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and generally insoluble in water. Chemically, fats are triglycerides, triesters of glycerol and any of several fatty acids. Fats may be either solid or liquid at room temperature, depending on their structure...
  
   component
• cocoa powder is the nonfat part of the cacao bean, which is ground into a powder.

Classification

Chocolate is available in many types. Different forms and flavors of chocolate are produced by varying the quantities of the different ingredients. Other flavors can be obtained by varying the time and temperature

Temperature

Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...

 when roasting the beans.

• "Unsweetened chocolate", also known as "bitter", "baking chocolate" or "cooking chocolate" is pure chocolate liquor
  Chocolate liquor
  Chocolate liquor is pure chocolate in its liquid form. Like the cocoa beans from which it is produced, it contains both cocoa solids and cocoa butter in roughly equal proportion....
  
   mixed with some form of fat to produce a solid substance. The pure, ground, roasted cocoa beans impart a strong, deep chocolate flavor. With the addition of sugar, however, it is used as the base for cake
  Cake
  Cake is a form of bread or bread-like food. In its modern forms, it is typically a sweet and enriched baked dessert. In its oldest forms, cakes were normally fried breads or cheesecakes, and normally had a disk shape...
  
  s, brownies
  Chocolate brownie
  A chocolate brownie is a flat, baked square or bar introduced in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century and popularized in both the U.S. and Canada during the first half of the twentieth century. The brownie is sliced from a type of dense, rich chocolate cake, which is, in texture,...
  
  , confections, and cookies.
• "Dark chocolate", also called "plain chocolate" or "black chocolate", is produced by adding fat and sugar to cocoa. It is chocolate with zero or much less milk than milk chocolate. The U.S. has no official definition for dark chocolate but European rules specify a minimum of 35% cocoa solids. Dark chocolate can be eaten as is, or used in cooking, for which thicker, more expensive baking bars with higher cocoa percentages ranging from 70% to 99% are sold. Dark is synonymous with semisweet, and extra dark with bittersweet, although the ratio of cocoa butter to solids may vary.
  • "Semisweet chocolate" is frequently used for cooking purposes. It is a dark chocolate with (by definition in Swiss usage) half as much sugar as cocoa, beyond which it is "sweet chocolate."
  • "Bittersweet chocolate" is chocolate liquor (or unsweetened chocolate) to which some sugar (less than a third), more cocoa butter, vanilla and sometimes lecithin
    Lecithin
    Lecithin is a generic term to designate any group of yellow-brownish fatty substances occurring in animal and plant tissues, and in egg yolk, composed of phosphoric acid, choline, fatty acids, glycerol, glycolipids, triglycerides, and phospholipids .The word lecithin was originally coined in 1847 by...
    
     has been added. It has less sugar and more liquor than semisweet chocolate, but the two are interchangeable when baking. Bittersweet and semisweet chocolates are sometimes referred to as 'couverture'. Many brands now print on the package the percentage of cocoa in the chocolate (as chocolate liquor and added cocoa butter). The higher the percentage of cocoa, the less sweet the chocolate is.
  • "Couverture
    Couverture chocolate
    Couverture chocolate is a very high quality chocolate that contains extra cocoa butter . The higher percentage of cocoa butter, combined with proper tempering, gives the chocolate more sheen, firmer "snap" when broken, and a creamy mellow flavor....
    
    " is a term used for chocolates rich in cocoa butter. Popular brands of couverture used by professional pastry chefs and often sold in gourmet and specialty food stores include: Valrhona
    Valrhona
    Valrhona is a French chocolate manufacturer based in the small town of Tain-l'Hermitage in Hermitage, a wine-growing district near Lyon. The company was founded in 1922 by a French pastry chef, Albéric Guironnet, from the Rhône valley and has five subsidiaries and 60 local distributors across the...
    
    , Felchlin, Lindt & Sprüngli
    Lindt & Sprüngli
    Lindt & Sprüngli AG, more commonly known as Lindt, is a luxury Swiss chocolate and confectionery company.- History :The origins of the company date back to 1845...
    
    , Scharffen Berger, Cacao Barry, Callebaut
    Callebaut
    Callebaut was a Belgian company and a major producer of chocolate for consumers and for professional chocolatiers. As of 1996 it is a part of the Swiss company Barry Callebaut...
    
    , and Guittard. These chocolates contain a high percentage of cocoa.
• "Milk chocolate" is solid chocolate made with milk in the form of milk powder, liquid milk, or condensed milk
  Condensed milk
  Condensed milk, also known as sweetened condensed milk, is cow's milk from which water has been removed and to which sugar has been added, yielding a very thick, sweet product which when canned can last for years without refrigeration if unopened. The two terms, condensed milk and sweetened...
  
   added. In the 1870s, Swiss confectioner Daniel Peter
  Daniel Peter
  Daniel Peter was a famous Swiss chocolatier. He was the first person to make a milk chocolate bar, in 1875. M. Peter began his career as a candle maker in his native Vevey, Switzerland, but soon demand fell due to the emergence of oil lamps....
  
   had developed solid milk chocolate using condensed milk
  Condensed milk
  Condensed milk, also known as sweetened condensed milk, is cow's milk from which water has been removed and to which sugar has been added, yielding a very thick, sweet product which when canned can last for years without refrigeration if unopened. The two terms, condensed milk and sweetened...
  
  ; hitherto it had only been available as a drink. The U.S.
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
   Government requires a 10% concentration of chocolate liquor. EU
  European Union
  The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
  
   regulations specify a minimum of 25% cocoa solids, however an agreement was reached in 2003 that allows milk chocolate in the UK and Ireland to contain only 20% cocoa solids. This type of chocolate must be called "family milk chocolate" elsewhere in the European Union.
• "Hershey process" milk chocolate is popular in North America. It was invented by Milton S. Hershey
  Milton S. Hershey
  Milton Snavely Hershey was an American confectioner, philanthropist, and founder of The Hershey Chocolate Company and the "company town" of Hershey, Pennsylvania....
  
  , founder of The Hershey Company
  The Hershey Company
  The Hershey Company, known until April 2005 as the Hershey Foods Corporation and commonly called Hershey's, is the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America. Its headquarters are in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is also home to Hershey's Chocolate World. It was founded by Milton S...
  
  , and can be produced more cheaply than other processes since it is less sensitive to the freshness of the milk. The process is a trade secret
  Trade secret
  A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers...
  
  , but experts speculate that the milk is partially lipolyzed
  Lipolysis
  Lipolysis is the breakdown of lipids and involves the hydrolysis of triglycerides into free fatty acids followed by further degradation into acetyl units by beta oxidation. The process produces Ketones, which are found in large quantities in ketosis, a metabolic state that occurs when the liver...
  
  , producing butyric acid
  Butyric acid
  Butyric acid , also known under the systematic name butanoic acid, is a carboxylic acid with the structural formula CH3CH2CH2-COOH. Salts and esters of butyric acid are known as butyrates or butanoates...
  
  , which stabilizes the milk from further fermentation. This compound gives the product a particular sour, "tangy" taste, to which the American public has become accustomed, to the point that other manufacturers now simply add butyric acid to their milk chocolates.
• "White chocolate
  White chocolate
  White chocolate is a confectionery derivative of chocolate. It commonly consists of cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids and salt, and is characterized by a pale yellow or ivory appearance...
  
  " is a confection based on sugar, milk, and cocoa butter
  Cocoa butter
  Cocoa butter, also called theobroma oil, is a pale-yellow, pure edible vegetable fat extracted from the cocoa bean. It is used to make chocolate, biscuits, and baked goods, as well as some pharmaceuticals, ointments, and toiletries...
  
   without the cocoa solids.
• "Cocoa powder" is used for baking, and for drinking with added milk and sugar. There are two types of unsweetened cocoa powder: natural cocoa (like the sort produced by the Broma process
  Broma process
  The Broma process is a method used to remove cocoa butter from cocoa mass, leaving cocoa solids . In about 1865 someone at the Domingo Ghirardelli factory discovered that by hanging a bag of cocoa mass in a warm room, the cocoa butter would drip off, leaving behind a residue that can then be...
  
  ), and Dutch-process cocoa
  Dutch process chocolate
  Dutch process chocolate, or Dutched chocolate, is chocolate that has been treated with an alkalizing agent to modify its color and give it a milder taste compared to "natural cocoa" extracted with the Broma process...
  
  . Both are made by pulverising partially defatted chocolate liquor and removing nearly all the cocoa butter; Dutch-process cocoa is additionally processed with alkali to neutralise its natural acidity. Natural cocoa is light in colour and somewhat acidic with a strong chocolate flavour. Natural cocoa is commonly used in recipes that also use baking soda; as baking soda is an alkali
  Alkali
  In chemistry, an alkali is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal element. Some authors also define an alkali as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7. The adjective alkaline is commonly used in English as a synonym for base,...
  
  , combining it with natural cocoa creates a leavening
  Leavening agent
  A leavening agent is any one of a number of substances used in doughs and batters that cause a foaming action which lightens and softens the finished product...
  
   action that allows the batter to rise during baking. Dutch cocoa is slightly milder in taste, with a deeper and warmer colour than natural cocoa. Dutch-process cocoa is frequently used for chocolate drinks such as hot chocolate due to its ease in blending with liquids. However, Dutch processing destroys most of the flavonoids present in cocoa. In 2005 Hershey discontinued their pure Dutch-process European Style cocoa and replaced it with Special Dark, a blend of natural and Dutch-process cocoa.
• "Compound chocolate" is the technical term for a confection combining cocoa with vegetable fat, usually tropical fats and/or hydrogenated fats, as a replacement for cocoa butter. It is often used for candy bar coatings. In many countries it may not legally be called "chocolate".
• "Raw chocolate" is chocolate that has not been processed, heated, or mixed with other ingredients. It is sold in chocolate-growing countries, and to a much lesser extent in other countries, often promoted as healthy.

Flavors such as mint

Mentha

Mentha is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae . The species are not clearly distinct and estimates of the number of species varies from 13 to 18. Hybridization between some of the species occurs naturally...

, vanilla

Vanilla

Vanilla is a flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla, primarily from the Mexican species, Flat-leaved Vanilla . The word vanilla derives from the Spanish word "", little pod...

, coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

, orange

Orange (fruit)

An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....

, or strawberry

Strawberry

Fragaria is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits. Although it is commonly thought that strawberries get their name from straw being used as a mulch in cultivating the plants, the etymology of the word is uncertain. There...

 is sometimes added to chocolate in a creamy form or in very small pieces. Chocolate bars frequently contain added ingredients such as peanut

Peanut

The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume or "bean" family , so it is not a nut. The peanut was probably first cultivated in the valleys of Peru. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing tall...

s, nut

Nut (fruit)

A nut is a hard-shelled fruit of some plants having an indehiscent seed. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts in English, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts...

s, fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

, caramel

Caramel

Caramel is a beige to dark-brown confection made by heating any of a variety of sugars. It is used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons, and as a topping for ice cream, custard and coffee....

, and crisped rice

Crisped rice

Crisped rice refers to a method of cooking rice which leaves the grains with a crisp, airy texture.It is created in much the same way as popcorn; in short, the reaction of both starch and moisture when heated within the shell of the grain...

. Pieces of chocolate, in various flavours, are sometimes added to cereals and ice cream

Ice cream

Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...

.

United States

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Food and Drug Administration

The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...

 (FDA) regulates the naming and ingredients of cacao products:

Product	Chocolate Liquor	Milk Solids	Sugar	Cocoa Fat	Milk Fat
Milk Chocolate	≥ 10%	≥ 12%
Sweet Chocolate	≥ 15%	< 12%
Semisweet or Bittersweet (Dark) Chocolate	≥ 35%	< 12%
White Chocolate		≥ 14%	≤ 55%	≥ 20%	≥ 3.5%

In March 2007, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, whose members include Hershey's

The Hershey Company

The Hershey Company, known until April 2005 as the Hershey Foods Corporation and commonly called Hershey's, is the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America. Its headquarters are in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is also home to Hershey's Chocolate World. It was founded by Milton S...

, Nestlé

Nestlé

Nestlé S.A. is the world's largest food and nutrition company. Founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1866 by Henri...

, and Archer Daniels Midland

Archer Daniels Midland

The Archer Daniels Midland Company is a conglomerate headquartered in Decatur, Illinois. ADM operates more than 270 plants worldwide, where cereal grains and oilseeds are processed into products used in food, beverage, nutraceutical, industrial and animal feed markets worldwide.ADM was named the...

, began lobbying

Lobbying

Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...

 the FDA to change the legal definition of chocolate to allow the substitution of "safe and suitable vegetable fats and oils" (including partially hydrogenated vegetable oils) for cocoa butter in addition to using "any sweetening agent" (including artificial sweeteners) and milk substitutes. Currently, the FDA does not allow a product to be referred to as "chocolate" if the product contains any of these ingredients.

European Union

Products labelled as "Family Milk Chocolate" elsewhere in the European Union are permitted to be labelled as simply "Milk Chocolate" in the U.K. and Ireland.

Product	Total Dry Cocoa Solids	Cocoa Butter	Non-Fat Cocoa Solids	Total Fat	Milk Fat	Milk Solids	Flour/starch
Chocolate	≥ 35%	≥ 18%	≥ 14%
Couverture Chocolate	≥ 35%	≥ 31%	≥ 2.5%
Chocolate Vermicelli or Flakes	≥ 32%	≥ 12%	≥ 14%
Milk Chocolate	≥ 25%		≥ 2.5%	≥ 25%	≥ 3.5%	≥ 14%
Couverture Milk Chocolate	≥ 25%		≥ 2.5%	≥ 31%	≥ 3.5%	≥ 14%
Milk Chocolate Vermicelli or Flakes	≥ 20%		≥ 2.5%	≥ 12%	≥ 3.5%	≥ 12%
Family Milk Chocolate	≥ 20%		≥ 2.5%	≥ 25%	≥ 5%	≥ 20%
Cream Chocolate	≥ 25%		≥ 2.5%	≥ 25%	≥ 5.5%	≥ 14%
Skimmed Milk Chocolate	≥ 25%		≥ 2.5%	≥ 25%	≤ 1%	≥ 14%
White Chocolate		≥ 20%				≥ 14%
Chocolate a la taza	≥ 35%	≥ 18%	≥ 14%				≤ 8%
Chocolate familiar a la taza	≥ 30%	≥ 18%	≥ 12%				≤ 18%
Note: "Total Fat" refers to the combined cocoa butter and milk fat content.

Japan

In Japan, 'chocolate materials' and 'chocolate products' are classified on a complex scale (q.v. :ja:チョコレート#チョコレートの規格).:

Cocoa content ≥35%, cocoa butter ≥18%, sucrose ≤55%, lecithin ≤0.5%, no additives other than lecithin and vanilla flavouring, no fats other than cocoa butter and milk fats, water ≤3%

Cocoa content ≥21%, cocoa butter ≥18%, milk solids ≥14%, milk fats ≥3.5%, sucrose ≤55%, lecithin ≤0.5%, no additives other than lecithin and vanilla flavouring, no fats other than cocoa butter and milk fats, water ≤3%

Cocoa content ≥35%, cocoa butter ≥18%, water ≤3%. It is also permitted to substitute milk solids for cocoa content as follows: cocoa content ≥21%, cocoa butter ≥18%, combined milk solids & cocoa content ≥35%, milk fats ≥3%, water ≤3%.

Cocoa content ≥21%, cocoa butter ≥18%, milk solids ≥14%, milk fats ≥3%, water ≤3%

Cocoa content ≥15%, cocoa butter ≥3%, fats ≥18%, water ≤3%

Cocoa content ≥7%, cocoa butter ≥3%, fats ≥18%, milk solids ≥12.5%, milk fats ≥2%, water ≤3%:

Products using milk chocolate or quasi milk chocolate as described above are handled in the same way as chocolate / quasi chocolate.

Processed chocolate products made from chocolate material itself or containing at least 60% chocolate material. Processed chocolate products must contain at least 40% chocolate material by weight. Amongst processed chocolate products, those containing at least 10% by weight of cream and no more than 10% of water can be called

Processed chocolate products containing less than 60% chocolate material

The Quasi symbol should officially be circled. Processed quasi chocolate products made from quasi chocolate material itself or containing at least 60% quasi chocolate material.

Processed quasi chocolate products containing less than 60% quasi chocolate material

Definition

Chocolate is a product based on cocoa solid and/or cocoa fat. The amount and types of cocoa solids and fat that the term implies is a matter of controversy. Manufacturers have an incentive to use the term for variations that are cheaper to produce, containing less cocoa and cocoa substitutes, although these variations might not taste as good.

There has been disagreement in the EU about the definition of chocolate; this dispute covers several ingredients, including the types of fat used, quantity of cocoa, and so on. But, in 1999, the EU at least resolved the fat issue by allowing up to 5% of chocolate's content to be one of 5 alternatives to cocoa butter: illipe

Illipe

Illipe oil is a vegetable oil from the Madhuca longifolia tree, often used in sweets....

 oil, palm oil

Palm oil

Palm oil, coconut oil and palm kernel oil are edible plant oils derived from the fruits of palm trees. Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of the fruit of the oil palm Elaeis guineensis; palm kernel oil is derived from the kernel of the oil palm and coconut oil is derived from the kernel of the...

, sal, shea butter

Shea butter

Shea butter is a slightly yellowish or ivory-colored fat extracted from the nut of the African shea tree . It is widely used in cosmetics as a moisturizer, salve or lotion. Shea butter is edible and may be used in food preparation...

, kokum gurgi

Garcinia indica

Garcinia indica, a plant in the mangosteen family , commonly known as kokum, is a fruit-bearing tree that has culinary, pharmaceutical, and industrial uses....

, or mango kernel oil.

A recent workaround by the US confection industry has been to reduce the amount of cocoa butter in candy bars without using vegetable fats by adding polyglycerol polyricinoleate

Polyglycerol Polyricinoleate

Polyglycerol polyricinoleate , E476, an emulsifier made from castor bean oils, reduces the viscosity of chocolate and similar coatings and compounds. It works by decreasing the friction between the particles of cacao, sugar, milk, etc. present so they can flow more easily when melted. It is used at...

(PGPR), which is an artificial castor oil-derived emulsifier that simulates the mouthfeel of fat. Up to 0.3% PGPR may be added to chocolate for this purpose.