With all the great news in the headlines recently about how good chocolate (specifically cocoa) is for you, the FDA says it’s too soon for manufacturers to be making some of the claims they are making ...

The marketing of functional confectionery products has been called into question following an FDA warning letter sent to Masterfoods USA over health claims and folic acid in its CocoaVia chocolate bars.

CocoaVia products, launched at retail in October, have been heavily marketed as “healthy.” Masterfood’s chief scientist Dr Harold Schmitz has previously said: “CocoaVia is the vanguard of our efforts to reinvent cocoa as an ingredient in healthful foods.” Mars, the division under which CocoVia falls, has set up a new business unit to promote its healthy range called Mars Nutrition for Health & Well-Being. Its brief is to target consumers who are aware of the need to switch to healthier foods but reluctant to change eating habits and pass on chocolate bars.

But by the FDA’s reckoning, the initiative pushes pushing the definition of what constitutes a food or drug under US law. “Articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease in man are drugs under section 201(g)(1)(B)of the Act,” wrote Joseph Baca, director of the office of compliance for the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, in a letter to Masterfoods. And according to federal regulation, drugs, unlike foods, require pre-market approval.

Baca describes the CocoaVia product line as “misbranded” in the letter, challenging the functional chocolate bars’ health claims, which include “Promotes a healthy heart” and “Now you can have real chocolate pleasure with real heart health benefits.” “These claims are false or misleading because of the high levels of saturated fat in the products,” warns the letter, which was addressed to Masterfoods vice president of research and development John Helferich.

The healthy CocoaVia image is based around the bars’ high content of cocoa flavonols, powerful antioxidants. However, the letter states these claims are only authorized when the food is also low in saturated fats. This is not the case with CocoaVia products which, according to the FDA, also happen to contain one-third the daily value for saturated fat (20 grams) per recommended serving. The FDA is also at odds with the ingredient folic acid, citing that food additive regulation (21 CFF 172.345) does not provide for adding folic acid to candy products, which the agency says is designed to keep total folic acid intake to under 1mg per day. “The consumption of higher levels of folic acid can mask anemia in persons with vitamin B 12 deficiency,” Baca explained.

However, if the exact same product was being sold as a nutritional supplement and there was a label that said “Not intended to diagnose or cure any disease” and “These claims have not been validated by the FDA” then the product could be sold as-is. Kinda makes you wonder, eh?

I am on record as being against turning chocolate into a vitamin supplement. If you are interested in eating chocolate for its health benefits find ways to use natural (not Dutch processed) cocoa powder. And eat the highest-quality, best chocolate you can afford to buy—just because you like to eat chocolate.

The entire story is here.