Provenance Claim of chocolate
Hi All,
Happy New Year.
I have a query and wondering if someone could enlighten me.
we use 2 different chocolates to make a product (chilled desserts/ no meat). these 2 different chocolates comes from different places. the 1st chocolate which we use as major % in finished product, we are planning to declare provenance claim (e.g Belgium chocolate whilst other chocolate is not...but as a % in finished product, it is very minor) for this chocolate on the label.
Does the regulation specify the quantity to be declared as provenance claim or does it have to be 100% from Belgium in this case?
hoping to see some advise
Regards
Sam
Dear Sam,
Thanks, Happy New Year to you too!
Please note, that there is a code in the Belgian chocolate branch for the origin claim, see link below.
http://www.choprabis...co_frameset.htm
With the help of this code, you can verify if your claim is already valid or if there are modifications to be carried out.
Kind regards,
Gerard Heerkens
Hi Sam,
Is this a product being manufactured for sale in the UK?
IIRC the Cocoa and Chocolate Products (England) Regulations 2003 don't include a formal definition of "Belgian" chocolate.
Your general obligation will be to not mislead the consumer, in accordance with Article 7(1)(a) of 1169/2011.
Assuming you've validated the claim on the Belgian component (bearing in mind that Belgium sets its own standards for some chocolate products and these are more stringent than the English reg above and European Directive 2000/36/EC from which it is derived, and thus it could potentially be expected to comply with these rather than simply being from Belgium) then in principle I don't see why you couldn't use two different types of chocolate, but you will need to take care with your labelling.
Is there a specific reason you're using the small % of the other chocolate? It would be a lot cleaner in terms of presentation if you could move to solely using the Belgian product, and hopefully the small increase wouldn't significantly affect the overall cost.
You'll obviously need to QUID the Belgian component separately in the ingredients dec either way, but your FOP descriptor based on the current formulation will probably have to qualify that it's "partially made with Belgian chocolate" or similar, rather than the far stronger and cleaner "made with Belgian chocolate".
Either way I'd give your local Trading Standards service a call once you've got an idea of how you want to proceed - most of them now offer assured advice at insanely cheap rates compared to the likes of Leatherhead/Campden, and as it's come from a TSO it can be used if you get any queries/challenges from other trading standard departments around the UK.
The product is manufactured in UK for sale world wide.
if i have a product declared on label as made with colombian chocolate and it has 99% columbian chocolate and 1 % belgian chocolate (toppings), will this be acceptable?
the reason for different origin chocolate in the toppings as it may not be available from the same origin from supplier
the ingredients and description will say colombian chocolate as colombian chocolate and belgian chocolate as just chocolate.
any suggestions?
I'd expect this to be acceptable for UK/EU market subject to meeting QUID obligations.
Unfortunately my regulatory remit doesn't extend beyond the EU so I can't really comment on broader marketability.