When is chocolate not chocolate? When it is milk chocolate made in Britain or the Republic of Ireland, apparently.

Euro-MPs have voted by nearly 3-1 to ban the name "milk chocolate" for products which use vegetable fat as well as cocoa butter, even in countries like Britain and Ireland where recipes are traditional and consumers know what they are getting.

There are also plans to set up a "choc-squad" to check that confectionary sold as chocolate passes the cocoa butter test.

As well as undergoing a name-change, a product will have to carry clear labelling warning consumers that it contains up to 5% vegetable fat.

But the Euro-MPs did not decide what name should be used instead, although phrases such as "milk chocolate with high milk content" were discussed. Originally, they had called for any chocolate containing milk and vegetable fat to have a completely different name, such as "vegelate" to distinguish it from the "pure" product produced in Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Holland, Luxembourg, Greece - all of which ban the use of non-cocoa vegetable fat.

The fightback begins

Fans of bars like "Cadbury's Dairy Milk" need not give up hope, however, as the European Commission believes that the Euro-MPs' directive is too draconian. In addition, Conservative MPs and Euro-MPs have promised to continue the fight.

An end to 100 years?

The Tory consumer spokesman in the European Parliament, Caroline Jackson, declared: "This is a disastrous result for the British chocolate industry, but...this is only the first round." She said the decision had been instigated by countries like Belgium, which wanted to keep out competition from Britain.

Mrs Jackson, MEP for Wiltshire North and Bath fumed: "They want us to abolish the name milk chocolate but nobody is offering an alternative. This is a crazy debate which many voters will find hard to stomach. Debates over food should be about safety, not what makes a chocolate bar really chocolate."

The Conservative Euro-sceptic MP, Teresa Gorman, said the decision made "Willy Wonka and his chocolate factory look positively sane. None of this manoeuvring is anything to do with opening up trade, it is blatantly to protect their own markets."

John Newman of the Biscuit Cake Chocolate and Confectionary Alliance said that the labelling as "containing vegetable fat" was intended to be "pejorative". He said the biggest brands affected by the renaming would be Cadbury's Dairy Milk bars and Nestle Yorkie bars.

Richard Frost of Cadbury's said the ruling was "bizarre". He said his company had been making milk chocolate for 100 years to a traditional recipe which people enjoyed and he resented having to change the name.

The chocolate war

The long-running chocolate war began in 1973 when Britain and Ireland joined the European Union. they were told then that their chocolate, made with vegetable fat, could not be exported to other member states where chocolate can only be called chocolate if it is made with pure cocoa butter.

This is restrictive and the the Commission is trying to change the rules in the interests of an efficient single market by allowing chocolate made with vegetable fat to be exported freely. After months of negotiations, Euro-MPs meeting in Strasbourg agreed that they could tolerate chocolate made with vegetable fat - as long as the ingredients were clearly marked prominently on the labelling and not just in small print on the back.

But the 306-112 vote in favour of amending the Commission's plans also included a decision to remove from the proposed Chocolate Directive, which would have allowed the UK and the Republic of Ireland to use the name milk chocolate domestically.
 

Back to top | BBC News Home | BBC Homepage