Industry Secrets

That finger-licking, scrumptious bar that melts in your mouth and fills your heart with delight is something that we particularly savour and enjoy. Yes! We all love chocolate and it goes with everything. But before you take another bite from that chocolate bar, we would like you to know something else…

The most common ingredients to make chocolate are cocoa beans, cocoa butter, sugar, milk powder, or alternative milk. Well, the label on your chocolate bar is missing a key ingredient cockroaches! According to NBC News, there are 8 pieces of bugs in an average chocolate bar. Now, you might be wondering; why has the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) even approved of this? The FDA is aware of this problem, but the truth is pests are everywhere, and it’s very impracticable to keep them out of our food. That's why there is nothing much that can be done to solve this issue.

Cockroaches make their entry into the chocolate making factories where cocoa beans are prepared and driving them away require tonnes of pesticides. Using large quantities of pesticides would not only make chocolates more poisonous but it would also lead to higher costs for chocolate-making firms which would inevitably reduce profits. Adding on, many firms choose not to remove the cockroaches because it helps in increasing the nutritional value of the chocolate bar. This is how firms are using cockroaches to their advantage, to show that their chocolate is nutritious.

According to the rules and regulations of the FDA, less than 60 insect parts per 100 grams of chocolate is deemed safe. It's not just chocolate, all manufactured and packed food often contain other bugs, rodent hair, and even faeces! Are there any chocolate brands that produce chocolate without cockroaches in them? The most precise and accurate answer is NO. Although every well-known food manufacturing company will make it their responsibility to keep their facility infestation-free, no one can assure you that the occasional cockroach will not sneak in.

Why doesn't the world know about this? Obviously, chocolate manufacturing companies tend not to write such information on their nutritional value labels because if they do reveal such information then consumers would stop eating chocolate and all types of manufactured food. This would have detrimental effects on sales, employment, and even entire economies because the global chocolate industry is worth 100 billion dollars. So far, nobody has found an effective solution to get rid of these cockroaches and bugs.