How to choose the right chocolate?

Chocolate is one of the most popular sweets. Many people with a sweet tooth eat chocolate, chocolates and various desserts with chocolate on a daily basis.

How to choose the “right” sweetness, how can you check the suitability of chocolate at home, and at what age can you give chocolate to children?

When buying this product, Rospotrebnadzor experts advise, first of all, pay attention to the cocoa content – the more it is, the better. Of course, the shelf life of the product is also important.

If at home after the purchase you found a grayish coating on a chocolate product, then several factors could be the reason for this. This may be a violation of production technology. As a result of improper tempering (this is the process of heating and cooling chocolate to certain temperatures, due to which cocoa butter hardens in a certain crystal structure), which causes fat bloom, the very plaque.

Also, such a defect can also appear if the rules for transporting or storing chocolate are violated – it begins to melt at temperatures above 30 degrees, cocoa butter comes to the surface, which gives the chocolate an unappetizing look.

In addition, there may be sugar blooming, which occurs if the chocolate was stored at a low temperature, and then it was transferred to a warm room – drops of condensate appear on the surface, in which sugar dissolves.

If chocolate lay next to odorous foods, then it can take over their smell.

Faced with this problem, the buyer has the right to return to the store and return the product. Such goods must be exchanged or refunded.

“When you unwrapped a chocolate bar, look at its appearance, if it is matte, deformed, then it was stored incorrectly. If the surface is shiny, the bar has a non-crushing break, crunches when you bite or break off – this is one of the signs of fresh, high-quality chocolate. When you buy, also make sure that there are no greasy spots on the packaging – this indicates that the product was stored incorrectly, ”said Nadezhda Raeva, head of the food hygiene supervision department of the Rospotrebnadzor Office for the Moscow Region.

As for children, they are advised to give chocolate no earlier than three years, and again pay attention to the composition. The more milk in the composition, the better for the baby.

For adults, it is better to consume dark or bitter chocolate in the morning. It contains the amino acid tryptophan and magnesium – they are responsible for the feeling of happiness that chocolate gives.

In addition, the use of chocolate reduces the risk of acute myocardial infarction, improves memory and vascular health.

Olga Bakhareva.

Author’s photo