French must lift chocolate bar

After 30 years of campaigning, French gourmets have lost a bitterly fought battle to keep their chocolate pure. This week sees the implementation of a European directive allowing alien ingredients such as vegetable fat to be used in the manufacture of chocolate bars, diluting the pure cocoa butter base.

French chocolate protection lobby groups were yesterday despondent. The addition of vegetable fat means the "quality is perverted and the taste ruined. Thank you Europe," the Journal of Patisserie makers declared.

Guy Urbain, honorary president of the National Confederation of Chocolate and Confectionery manufacturers in France, warned that the regulations would confuse consumers searching for the genuine article.

British chocolate, which has always contained vegetable fat, elicits distaste in France.

Most French consumers prefer the bitter dark chocolate which is produced from a base of 100% cocoa butter.

Under the new regulations, up to 5% vegetable fat may now be added to a bar of chocolate in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy and a handful of other European countries which have resisted any attempt to dilute the product.

Since vegetable fat costs around 20% less than pure cocoa butter, only the most committed French chocolate manufaturers are likely to resist the pressure to cut costs.