www.foodtechnology.co.nz 15
kAAKAO is what most people would call
heaven-sent. A chocolate that looks
like chocolate, tastes like chocolate and
melts in your mouth like chocolate but
with only 25g of sugar per 100g, with a low
glycemic index and as little naturally occurring
sugar as in one medium-sized green apple…
it makes eating indulgently almost good for
you. When frustrated Nordchocolate Oy
founder Stephanie Seege – dogged by food
intolerances her entire life – decided to make
her own sweet products for restricted diets,
she knew there was a way to make highly
indulgent chocolate that tasted the same or
better than what was already on the market
– but free from traditional sugar, allergens
and other ingredients. And that became the
Finish food technologist’s downfall. The new
chocolate is made with cocoa, cocoa butter,
coconut milk and dates. Those ingredients
seem traditional, but the combination hasn’t
been used in chocolate-making until now.
According to European legislators, the name
‘chocolate’ is by definition a combination of
cocoa and added sugar. Whilst dates contain
naturally occurring fructose and glucose,
they are not considered sugar and therefore
kAAKAO is not chocolate. Seege is outraged.
“An organic chocolate bar made with four
premium ingredients that can’t be called
chocolate?! It’s a great example of how
confusing current food labelling laws are,”
she says. “How are consumers supposed
to understand what we make? We want
to change that.” So she decided to make
kAAKAO a leading light in driving revisions to
the EU laws, which presently constitute what
she calls a challenging barrier to the market.
“The laws are also prohibitive to consumers’
demands for healthier choices,” she says.
“Experts and factory owners said it was
impossible to create a chocolate sweetened
with dates. Years were spent developing
the recipe and sourcing new ingredients.
I’m not going to lie to you – people scoffed,
they laughed, they told me it couldn’t be
done, because no one had. It took some
experimentation, some mixing and remixing
of ingredients. Blending and re-blending until
I got my confection to perfection.” The code
was finally cracked together with a Swiss
partner, thus breaking tradition in the art of
chocolate making and paving the way for a
new ‘not-chocolate’ category. The impossible
turned possible - creating the same chocolatey
taste and texture that people are used to,
but without using any traditional sugar and
by rethinking all the remaining ingredients as
well. UK-based Seege says it is vital to raise
awareness around food labelling and to teach
consumers how to decipher what they are
about to eat or buy. She will use her brand’s
legal problems to showcase the issue. “We
are currently trying to create change with the
help of media,” she says. “A while back, we
tried changing our tax class, arguing that we
shouldn’t be taxed as chocolate if we can’t
call our product that. It wasn’t well received.
“Therefore, we are creating buzz around the
ridiculous situation by getting people talking
about it and raising awareness around food
labelling laws. If people start understanding
how confusing they are, we hopefully will
push legislators to rethink the current laws.”
www.kaakaochocolate.com
WHEN CHOCOLATE
AIN’T CHOCOLATE
Stephanie Seege is on a crusade. Her
date-sweetened chocolate range suitable
for vegans, people with allergies,
intolerances, religious requirements and
diabetics has been blocked by EU law
from being called chocolate…and she’s
doing something about it.
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