http://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/65571/as-bitter-chocolate
As bitter as chocolate
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By Shane Gilchrist on Sat, 18 Jul 2009
Magazine
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.
"The melting point of palm oil should be at least the same as cocoa butter and it is most likely slightly lower.
"If any waxiness is present, it is more likely to be due to seasonal variation in fatty acid composition of the milk fat.
"In autumn and winter, the amount of saturated fatty acids in the milk fat tends to increase and make the milk fat harder."
Mr Silcock, who does research for Cadbury, said though palm oil was cheaper than cocoa butter, he didn't think the ingredient cost savings would be large.
"I haven't checked the Cadbury label, but I would guess it [palm oil] would be a long way down the label [indicating it is used in a small amount]."
Palm oil has become widely used in the food industry, mainly in the frying, baking and confectionery sectors.
Reasons for the widespread use are cost, resistance to oxidation and the physical properties (melting point, crystal structure) it imparts in the final product.
"In regards to nutritional properties, this depends upon the exact fraction used but palm oil is likely to possess a higher proportion of monounsaturated fatty acids and slightly lower proportion of saturated fatty acids than cocoa butter.
With regards to energy density, both fats will have the same number of calories."
Back to the orang-utans.
Can Cadbury allay consumer concerns over its use of palm oil, a product the United Nations Environment Programme says is the major driver of deforestation in Borneo and Sumatra? The most-used edible oil in the world, palm oil is a $35 billion-a-year industry.
Stroll along supermarket aisles and peruse the ingredients on the shelves; brands of soap, washing powder, biscuits and margarine contain it, though it's often described as vegetable oil.
In New Zealand and Australia, only three vegetable oils (peanut, sesame and soybean) must be specifically labelled in food products.
This is because of their potential to prompt allergic reactions.
Under the New Zealand/Australia Food Standards Code, chocolate must contain no more than 5% of edible oils (other than cocoa butter and dairy fats) and at least 20% cocoa bean derivatives.
The new Cadbury Dairy Milk contains 21% cocoa solids, compared to the 27% of the old recipe; its main New Zealand competitor, Whittaker's Creamy Milk, contains 33% cocoa solids but uses milk powder rather than the milk solids included in Cadbury's product.
Of the 38 million tonnes of palm oil made annually, it is estimated only 4% is produced sustainably.
"Even though we are a relatively small user, we are one of the largest sustainably sourced palm oil users," Mr Oldham said, pointing out the company was a member of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
"Cadbury New Zealand is committed to, and proud of, sustainable sourcing ... We have paid a premium to ensure any palm oil purchased for use in Cadbury Dairy Milk is certified as sustainably sourced. That premium goes back to the sustainable farmer.
"The first actual certified sustainable palm oil was produced and shipped in November, 2008. That is where that 4% you're quoting comes in. It's a relatively small amount of the total ... but that is what Cadbury New Zealand is purchasing from, not the other 96%. Organisations like the World Wildlife Fund recommend that this is exactly what we should do."
On its website, Auckland Zoo says being a member of the RSPO - "an industry-led group, not an independent body" - is not a 100% guarantee that palm oil is from a sustainable source.
However, the zoo contends, "it's a start".
Last month, Cadbury topped the list of New Zealand's most trusted brands for the seventh consecutive year.
Compiled by Readers Digest magazine, the list featured Tip Top in second place, with Sony, Toyota and Panadol rounding out the top five.
Mr Oldham, as head of the company's New Zealand operations, is justifiably proud of this standing: "I think when you are the country's most trusted brand for seven years in a row and have been making the same product for almost 100 years, nobody is better placed to say, `look, we along with consumers can change'."
Yet an examination of the current outcry might suggest the brand, which utilises strong marketing devices such as the colour purple and "a glass and a half of full cream milk" to sell its Dairy Milk blocks, is owned not by the company but, rather, the consumer.
David Bishop, a professional practice fellow in the University of Otago's marketing department, said one of the major building blocks of a strong brand was the trust that existed between the brand owner and those who bought products under that brand.
"It appears Cadbury may well have undermined a number of important product features that support their brand.
"They have changed their chocolate blocks, the building blocks on which trust of the Cadbury brand is built," Mr Bishop said.
"My personal view is that the changes that have apparently been made could be on a par with the New Coke marketing blunder of 1985 where the Coca-Cola company changed the formulation of Coke in the mistaken belief that it was their brand to do with as they wish.
In fact, the brand belonged in the hearts and minds of those people who bought the product and the negative response of the consumers was so great that the company had to return to its original formulation.
"To partially quote [advertising guru] David Ogilvy, `The consumer is not an idiot.'."
Whether these changes will benefit or hurt Cadbury remains to be seen.
However, Mr Bishop points out the company's British headquarters did a similar thing 33 years ago. Corporate amnesia then?
"What marketing managers at Cadbury may not realise is that the 2009 situation is not a new one for the company. In 1976 the world price of cocoa butter rocketed.
Manufacturers adopted one or more of three possible responses to this in order to maintain profitability: increase the price, change the formulation of the product and/or change the physical shape of the product.
"In New Zealand, Cadbury had a relatively small production unit compared to its factory at Bourneville in the United Kingdom.
"It was not practical to reduce the size of the bars made on the machinery in Dunedin so they had to keep the thickness of their products unchanged. In the UK it was relatively easy to make such changes.
"It was generally agreed within Cadbury worldwide that the use of substitute fats instead of some of the cocoa butter used was not a good idea ...
"In New Zealand, in 1976, the price was increased to cover cost increases but the quality and characteristics of the products were not changed. This proved to be the right strategy.
"In the UK, at the same time Cadbury made significant changes to the thickness of its products, [competitor] Rowntrees introduced a new thick moulded chocolate bar called Yorkie. Sales of Cadbury Dairy Milk suffered badly." (Within two years of its launch, sales of Yorkie topped 13,000 tonnes.)
Asked whether the Dairy Milk brand was owned by Cadbury or its consumers, Mr Oldham responded: "I hadn't thought of it in those terms but I'd say, ultimately, consumers own the brand and that Cadbury respects that and wouldn't be making any of these changes if it thought that it was going to put at risk the value consumers place on the Cadbury brand".
Still, life sometimes imitates art: a bit like that quirky and cute Cadbury television advertisement involving a couple of children, some eyebrows are being raised.
