Don't mess with chocolate

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had enough on its plate without adding a heaping serving of chocolate.

The agency in charge of regulating our food supply needlessly picked a fight with its plan to fudge standards by allowing chocolate's main ingredient, cocoa butter, to be replaced with other ingredients, including vegetable oil. The FDA is carrying the ball for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which requested the change on behalf of 11 food-product groups. Manufacturers are worried about dry weather hurting production in the world's two largest suppliers of cocoa beans: Ivory Coast and Ghana.

Diluting chocolate standards isn't the answer. What's next, popcorn sans the corn?

Chocolate makers who want to cut costs by reducing or eliminating cocoa can do so; indeed, many already have. They simply label their products chocolate-flavored, chocolate-ish or some other pseudo-correct adjective. Anyone who has ever tasted Whoppers, those chocolaty bits with the feel of Styrofoam, understands immediately.

The FDA's role as regulator ought to mean ensuring consumers are not buying a product marketed as something it is not. Industry numbers suggest consumers want real, not imitation, chocolate.

Between 2003 and 2005, U.S. sales of premium chocolates went from $1.4 billion to $1.79 billion. That is a fraction of the overall $15.7 billion chocolate market, but the growth rate for top-quality chocolate has been more rapid: 28 percent over the three-year period compared with annual growth rates of 2 to 3 percent for the industry as a whole.

Recent studies suggest health benefits from the flavonols and antioxidants in chocolate. Introducing unhealthy fats and oils in sweets appears to double the calories and associated health risks.

Lastly, we come to the matter of aesthetics. Americans, besieged by messages about obesity and other health risks, are limiting their treats. If one is going to indulge in chocolate, it ought to at the very least be worth it.

(The FDA is taking public comments until June 25. Go to www.fda.gov or call 888-463-6332.)