Is chocolate vegan and gluten free?

A vegan is a person who does not eat or use animal products. A vegetarian is a person who does not eat meat or fish, and sometimes other animal products. Choosing to be a vegan or vegetarian is often based on moral, religious, or health reasons. A gluten free diet is a diet that excludes the protein gluten.

Are you vegan or vegetarian or gluten free? Can a vegan eat chocolate? Yes. Can a vegetarian eat chocolate? Yes.

It can be challenging to determine which foods can be safely eaten and which should be avoided based on information and personal preference.

Chocolate’s a potentially confusing example. You may be surprised that some chocolate contains flour, barley malt, milk, honey or other gluten or animal derived ingredients. Which leads to the question is Charley’s chocolate gluten free and vegan? The short answer is yes. You should always read the contents on the label though.

Gluten

Gluten is a protein found in many types of grains including rye, barley, and wheat. Most people have no difficulty digesting gluten in its various forms. Eating foods containing gluten, however, can cause issues for people with celiac disease or those with a sensitivity to gluten.

For someone with celiac disease, consuming gluten triggers an immune response in the body. This then results in symptoms such as diarrhoea, nutritional deficiencies and fatigue. Those with simply a sensitivity to gluten can experience bloating, gas and nausea after eating foods with gluten.

The good news is that pure chocolate Is gluten free. High quality plain dark chocolate, for example Charley’s Mount Edna chocolate, comes from cocoa beans (theobroma cacao). Charley’s Mount Edna chocolate is made from cocoa nibs and cocoa butter, both part of the cocoa bean, and sugar. All are gluten free.

Many common brands of chocolate may contain 10–15 other ingredients including powdered milk, vanilla, soy lecithin, emulsifiers, stabilisers and flavourings. These ingredients may be added to improve shelf life, taste, texture, snap and mouth feel. Since cocoa beans are expensive compared to some other ingredients, cheaper chocolate’s most likely to contain more of these other ingredients. Many chocolate bars also have additions of nuts, raisins, chilli and other ingredients such as biscuit pieces.

So it’s really important to check the contents on the label.

Vegetarian and vegan

Again, the good news is that pure chocolate is suitable for those on a vegetarian or vegan diet. Pure dark chocolate, for example Charley’s Mount Edna that comes from theobroma cacao beans, doesn’t contain any animal or animal derived products. It’s made from cocoa nibs derived from roasted cocoa beans and cocoa butter and sugar, all of which are entirely vegetable products.

As with the gluten example above, the issue of concern can be with the additives including milk. While some vegetarians allow themselves milk and milk products, other vegetarians and many vegans generally do not. So milk chocolate may not be suitable.

Cross-contamination

Even if a chocolate product doesn’t contain any ingredients with gluten or animal products, it may have become cross-contaminated. Some labels warn you and say ’may contain traces of nuts’. An example could be a biscuit manufacturer who also makes chocolate. The contaminant quantities will likely be minute and so would be of little concern to most people; but could be detrimental to others. Reputable manufacturers would of course have procedures in place to minimise such cross contamination.

In summary, read the label and if still unsure contact the manufacturer to seek clarification. Premium dark is suitable for gluten free, vegetarian or vegan diets.

Is chocolate fermented?

Yes, cocoa is fermented– along with rice, wine, beer, coffee and some tea and other foods.

Does fermentation mean chocolate’s alcoholic? Well NO.

Does it mean chocolate has health benefits akin to cultured products like yoghurt? Probably no.

Does chocolate have other health benefits? Many are claimed; some verifiable and others a marketer’s dream but worth a subsequent blog topic.

Fermentation

Cocoa fermentation is a natural process: the outer whitish fibre of the cocoa bean dissipates and the naked coca bean remains, ready for drying and roasting.

Good cocoa flavour development depends on the fermentation process. Good quality cocoa beans which are not fermented well don’t have the flavour development necessary for producing good quality chocolate. Poorly fermented beans often develop off-flavours or have high acidity.

Ghana cocoa is widely regarded as the world’s best quality ‘bulk’ cocoa. It has a reputation for good and very consistent flavour attributed to a diverse, diligent grower base and a national quality assurance and marketing system. Ghana cocoa provides a standard against which other cocoas can be benchmarked. Conversely, much cocoa from Indonesia and Southeast Asia is of low and variable quality due to poor or non-existent fermentation practices. Some good quality Asian cocoa is produced from particular estates or regions where fermentation and drying are well managed.

Although fermentation is a complex process, the traditional techniques are simple and only basic hardware is required. The most primitive method is to wrap a ‘heap’ of cocoa beans in banana leaves. A slightly more sophisticated technique is to use specially constructed baskets or trays. The most common technique used in larger plantations, however, is to use slatted hardwood boxes which allow aeration and drainage of liquid ‘sweatings’.

In all cases, the fermenting beans are periodically ‘turned’ which aerates the mass of beans. Fermentation is generally conducted over five to seven days.

In practice things can and do go wrong; if everything goes right, however, the end result is cocoa of outstanding flavour. The challenge of course is to get everything right every time. So what can go wrong? Most issues arise with temperature which can greatly influence the fermentation success.

At Mission Beach we’re at the southern end of the latitude range for growing and processing cocoa. Our challenges are typically due to low winter temperatures. The most successful fermentations occur when the active fermentation starts almost immediately after the pods are opened and the beans extracted. The natural fermentation process is enabled when airborne and on pod wild yeasts react naturally with the fruit’s sugar component.

The fermentation cycle

At fermentation early stages, the bean mass will be at ambient temperature–this could be 20 0C in winter or 35 0C in summer. As the fermentation starts the temperature of the mass increases.

Good fermentation happens at above 45 0C. Therefore in winter we need to rise the cocoa mass by 25 0C; in summer by only 10 0C. At 45 0C temperature the ‘right’ yeasts are at work. At lower temperatures bad yeast and bacteria take over potentially contributing to ‘off’ flavours. So in winter heat pads are used to wrap the fermentation vessels or alternatively they are placed in heated spaces. Either works well.

Once the temperature is at the 45 0C point it remains there for approximately five days before declining, at which point different, undesirable yeasts and bacteria start to multiply. It’s therefore imperative to stop the fermentation at this exact point. Fermentation is stopped by putting the beans out in a thin layer no more than two beans thick for drying.

So, the bad yeasts have been tamed. The dried fermented beans are now in perfect condition for the next eight steps to produce delicious Charley’s chocolate.

Source

Yan Diczbalis, ‘Producing Cocoa in Northern Australia’, Australian Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation