If all of big business' antics aren't enough to get Americans riled, this should: The New York Times reported earlier this week that the big companies that make America's prized chocolate are out to pull the wool over consumers' eyes:
"Real chocolate is made from crushed cacao beans, which provide not only solid cocoa mass but also cocoa butter that is vital to texture because, quite literally, it melts in your mouth. Industrial confectioners [i.e. big businesses] have petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to be able to replace cocoa butter with cheaper fats and still call the resulting product “chocolate.” The reason: the substitution would allow them to use fewer beans and to sell off the butter for cosmetics and such."
Of course, it's all about making a profit. But it will be interesting to see what it takes to get Americans up in arms over the fact that too many big businesses would rather make a buck than sell an honest product. Perhaps not surprisingly, The San Francisco Chronicle editorialized today on behalf of this cause. Their editorial, "A Cry for Chocolate" (pardon the inner cynic, but aren't there better things to cry over?), makes the interesting point that the real-vs.-fake privileges that this change could bring would only become a new difference between the haves and the have-nots.
Leave a comment and tell us what you think.
3 comments:
I think that is just not right! why does every thing have to do with making money and such?
char
Hi you girls. Can you believe it? personally, I love chocolate but it makes me feel bad when I eat chocolate now a days. I mean, companies care so much about power and money that now they don't even sell an honest product. That does not make me very happy.
Cosmetics matter less than food.
Post a Comment