The Federal Consumer Prosecutor’s Office ( Profeco ) revealed the results of a laboratory analysis of different brands of chocolate powder and bars that are marketed in Mexico .
In the Consumer Magazine of January 2022, Profeco detailed that it subjected a study to 32 different products: 12 table chocolate tablets, three table chocolate-flavored tablets, 10 powdered chocolates and seven powders to prepare chocolate-flavored drinks.
On December 22, the head of Profeco, Ricardo Sheffield Padilla, had anticipated that five of the analyzed brands placed less product in their packaging, so these products would be withdrawn from the market.
Irregularities detected
Profeco explained that in each product it was analyzed that there was precise commercial information, that is, with the general labeling specifications for prepackaged food and non-alcoholic beverages; In addition, the energy content of each product was analyzed; the amount of protein; sugars and fat.
According to the report, among the irregularities that were found in the chocolate brands analyzed and that will be withdrawn from the market are that they add non-permitted fats, such as coconut or palm kernel fat (edible vegetable oil); others have less product than the label indicates and some other brands have less sugar.
Other irregularities that mislead the consumer are that they have excess calories and do not warn, they discard certain nutritional or proprietary legends and other brands contain sweeteners and do not present the warning legend .
Study conclusions
The chocolate that contains the most cocoa is Moctezuma Uruapan Premium chocolate , because based on the characteristics of bitter table chocolate, it contains more cocoa and less sugar, so it stands out from the rest.
Chocolates with irregularities
table chocolate
With more fat than declared
- Golden Hills: Adds coconut or palm kernel vegetable fat, so it does not comply with NOM-186.
With less content than declared
- Moctezuma Casero: It had up to 6.5% less content than declared, so it does not comply with NOM-002.
- Granny Original Nestlé: It had up to 6% less declared net content, plus it does not bear the Excess Calorie seal.
- La Suiza: Had up to 4.2% less than the declared net content.
- Precissimo 200g chocolate flavored tablets: It had up to 11.4% less net content than declared.
- Chocolate Don Gustavo 250 g .: It had up to 12.8% less net content than declared.
While the “table chocolate flavors” that contain more sugar and fat were:
- Precissimo 180g.
- Chococoa 540 g.
While the chocolates with incomplete nutritional declaration were:
- Kekua 400 g., Table chocolate with sugar.
- Vitamin Choco Genius 385 g. Chocolate powder fortified with vitamins and minerals.
The chocolates that contain excess calories and do not warn with an alert label were:
- Granny for table and powder.
- Don Gustavo for table and powder.
- Choco Tavo powder.
- Ibarra for table.
- Morelia
- Nesquik
- Choco Choco
- Vitamin Choco Genius.
- Ibarra powder.
If you want to consult the complete study you can.
