A legal limit is only useful if we can verify it reliably

Chocolate is a case in point.

The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has developed ERM-BD801, a cocoa-butter certified reference material that supports the detection and quantification of cocoa-butter equivalents in chocolate.

It replaces IRMM-801, whose stocks were exhausted after around 20 years. Certified for the same five triacylglycerols, the new material preserves the calibration reference underpinning established authenticity-testing methods and helps laboratories produce accurate and comparable results.

Under the EU Chocolate Directive (2000/36/EC), certain vegetable fats other than cocoa butter may be added to specified chocolate products within a 5% limit, calculated after deducting other permitted edible ingredients. Minimum cocoa-butter and cocoa-solids requirements must still be met, and a specific declaration is required on the label, advising about the presence of different fats.

Checking those requirements depends on reliable measurement. Without the appropriate reference material, or when it is used incorrectly, the analytical approach loses its reliability.

Some recent cases of enforcement include:

1. Germany — March 2025: misleading “Dubai chocolate”. In findings published on 19 March 2025, covering samples collected in late 2024, CVUA Stuttgart reported that 12 of 32 tested products had outer shells that were not chocolate, despite ingredient lists declaring milk chocolate or its components. Investigators examined the shells’ fatty-acid profiles. Eleven of the twelve products were imports, including seven from the UAE and four from Türkiye. The authority explicitly identified misleading presentation. We had the same and more issues with Dubai chocolate in Italy (in particular, the statements about added fats were missing); they had some also in the UK, etc. Speaking of which…
2. United Kingdom — July 2026: overstated cocoa content and misdescribed chocolate. The FSA’s 2025/26 surveillance report, published on 2 July 2026, found seven of 40 prepacked chocolate samples contained less cocoa solids than declared, even after accounting for measurement uncertainty. They nevertheless met the legal minimum requirements for chocolate. Separately, label reviews identified ten Dubai-style products that did not meet the chocolate definition, because their declared principal fat source was other vegetable fats. The latter finding was based on labels; the chocolate component was not analysed for fat composition.

These cases are “non-compliances”; the reports do not establish fraudulent intent, but there is a case to think that both ignorance and opportunism played a role here, due to a huge traction on the market of certain novelties.

On the other hand, most of the common fraudulent practices on the market cannot be properly enforced, since in the absence of validated reference materials and accredited analytical methods, it becomes challenging even to establish which is the “authentic” matrix against which to test.

The creation of validated databases of reference materials is pivotal for enforcement.

Sources:

1. https://crm.jrc.ec.europa.eu/en/reference-materials-news/ERM-BD801-certified-reference-material-ensuring-continuity-chocolate
2. https://www.ua-bw.de/pub/beitrag.asp?ID=4134&Pdf=No&Thema_ID=2&lang=DE&subid=0
3. https://science.food.gov.uk/article/162217-retail-surveillance-survey-sampling-programme-2025-26

Originally published at https://cesarevarallo.substack.com on September 8, 2026.