As bitter as chocolate

As Cadbury's Chocolate Carnival comes to a close, Shane Gilchrist ponders the sweet and the sour.

Alexandra schoolgirl Shalisa Healey loves eating chocolate, as do many of her peers.

And, like many of her peers, she is given homework.

Recently, she combined the enjoyment of one with the necessity of the other, writing a class presentation on the subject of her salivations.

"On some days people say they can smell the sweet chocolate fragrance over the centre of Dunedin that comes from the Cadbury chocolate factory . . .", the 13-year-old enthused in an assignment that included among its 400 words a couple that have sprung to attention of late: "They are now putting palm oil in the chocolate, too . . ."

Palm Oil. Since mid-May, when Cadbury New Zealand rolled out its new-recipe Dairy Milk, the subject has been gaining momentum.

Amid the company festivities that culminated in a cascade of confectionery down Dunedin's Baldwin St yesterday, Cadbury has continued to battle the gravity of public opinion: there have been letters to editors, blogs and petitions decrying changes to a product dear to the mouths of many.

Even Auckland Zoo has joined the list of critics, its decision to stop selling Cadbury products prompted by concerns over the use of palm oil, an industry responsible for massive deforestation and subsequent species decline. (Forget the advert with the gorilla playing drums, what about the orang-utans?) Primates aside, criticism of the new Cadbury Dairy Milk is largely a matter of taste.

Among the claims: it leaves a slimy feeling in the mouth; it is not as satisfying; the pieces are thinner - as are the king-size blocks, down from 250g to 200g.

Despite the complaints, Cadbury insists the changes to the formula were tested on consumers before any chocolate reached shop shelves.

"We ran the current formulation past New Zealand consumers and made sure it was the preferred recipe of those consumers. The last thing we want to do is introduce a recipe they don't like," Matthew Oldham, managing director of Cadbury NZ, explained in an interview with the Otago Daily Times this week.

"Most of our testing is outsourced, with companies that specialise in that sort of thing. Usually, it involves hundreds of people in order to get some statistical significance.

"I think whenever you make a change to anything you are going to have some people who resist that change and some who welcome that change," Mr Oldham said, insisting Cadbury stood by its new recipe.

Asked whether the new recipe had affected sales of Cadbury Dairy Milk, he says sales "are in line with our expectations, which is an increase on last year and on previous months. There is a seasonality [factor] - people eat more chocolate in winter months."

Does that mean the main reason for the rise in sales is because we're in the midst of winter, as opposed to consumers embracing the new recipe?

"I think there are several factors," Mr Oldham says.

"Part of it will be seasonality, in relation to when you're talking about a month ago or two months ago. Products go up and down. When you compare sales to last year, overall sales are higher.

"Part of it is also that there is a lot of talk about chocolate in the market at the moment so people are probably going out and buying a block."

The change of recipe is also the result of rationalisation, though it's not a term the company uses.

In September last year, Cadbury announced 145 jobs would be lost at its Dunedin factory over two years as it phased in new technology and created a "centre of excellence" for the manufacturing of chocolate assortments.

"In terms of being able to make our plants specialised, it allows factories to stay open. The Dunedin factory is a case in point," Mr Oldham said.

"We've invested $20 million in the crumb plant but also there is another $52 million invested in new equipment ...

"Dunedin is going to make the same sort of tonnage as it was, but it will have fewer products and will export about 80% of that."

For the record, the chocolate crumb made in Dunedin goes to Cadbury's Tasmania plant, where the new Dairy Milk blocks are produced from a mix of New Zealand and Australian crumb.

Asked whether the recipe was standardised across all of Cadbury's markets, including Asia-Pacific, the United States and Europe, Mr Oldham said it varied, "depending on local taste preferences".

So is this a localised issue? Is pride in the former homemade, palm oil-free Dairy Milk part of the reason for such a backlash?

Mr Oldham: "Pride ... or nostalgia. Certainly, when you take the labels off and do blind testing, the new milk chocolate is preferred. The differences are very minor."

Try telling that to Wanaka chocolate fan John Gale.

Mr Gale, who started working in confectionery production in England in 1954, moved to New Zealand three years later and continued that career until 1972, claims he'd "probably be as experienced as anybody" in offering comment on the merits of Cadbury's new product.

"To my way of thinking, it is just rubbish. It used to be one of the best in the world. Well, I'm not going to eat it any more and I'm a big chocolate fan. To some extent it's quite sad, because it was such a great product here.

"They are trying to rationalise a product and I can understand that, but they are trying to give a product to New Zealand that is not comparable with what we've been getting."

The secret, Mr Gale believes, to good dairy milk chocolate lies in the cocoa crumb, a mix of cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, milk fats and other ingredients.

Cocoa butter is pressed out of the cocoa bean; about 65% of the bean comprises cocoa butter, the rest is cocoa liquor.

"Cocoa butter is a very unique fat. It has a unique melting range. If you put it in your mouth and suck on it, it gradually melts over a range of temperatures in your mouth. If you put any other fat in your mouth, it will all melt at one temperature," Mr Gale explained.

So why use palm oil in chocolate? Patrick Silcock, of the University of Otago food science department's product development research centre, said palm oil was used to improve "processibility", soften the final chocolate and improve its melting properties.