White Chocolate

White chocolate is a chocolate confection, pale ivory in color, made from cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids and sometimes vanilla.  White chocolate does not contain cocoa solids, which are found in other types of chocolate, such as milk chocolate and dark chocolate. It is solid at room temperature 25 °C (77 °F) because the melting point of cocoa butter, the only cocoa bean component of white chocolate, is 35 °C (95 °F).

History

In 1937, the white chocolate Galak was launched in Europe by the Swiss company Nestlé. Other companies developed their own formulas, such as that developed by Kuno Baedeker for the Merckens Chocolate Company in 1945.

From about 1948 until the 1990s, Nestlé produced a white chocolate bar with almond pieces, Alpine White, for markets in the United States and Canada. Hershey began mass production of white Hershey's Kisses in the 1990s, a product that diversified during the early 21st century to include a chocolate white-dark swirl Kiss called the Hug.

Composition

White chocolate does not contain cocoa solids, the primary non-fat constituent of conventional chocolate liquor — chocolate in its raw, unsweetened form. During manufacturing, the dark-colored solids of the cocoa bean are separated from its fatty content, as with milk chocolate and dark chocolate, but, unlike with other forms of chocolate, no cocoa mass is added back; cocoa butter is the only cocoa ingredient in white chocolate. White chocolate contains only trace amounts of the stimulants theobromine and caffeine which are present in the cocoa mass but not the butter. Flavorings such as vanilla may be added to white chocolate confectionery. Caramelized white chocolate is called "blonde chocolate" and has a different flavor profile.

Regulation

Regulations govern what may be marketed as white chocolate: Since 2000 in the European Union, white chocolate must be (by weight) at least 20% cocoa butter, 14% total milk solids, and 3.5% milk fat. As of May 2021, the European Food Safety Authority proposed banning the food coloring agent, E171 (titanium dioxide), used as a common whitener in some white chocolate products.

Since 2004 in the United States, the Code of Federal Regulations defined that white chocolate should contain "not less than 20 percent by weight of cacao fat", "not less than 3.5 percent by weight of milkfat and not less than 14 percent by weight of total milk solids", and "not more than 55 percent by weight of a nutritive carbohydrate sweetener." Acceptable dairy elements when manufacturing white chocolate in the United States include evaporated milk, skim milk, buttermilk, or malted milk. White chocolate products may not contain artificial coloring agents.