Confectioners wage war on junk food image
By
Euan Stuart Dec 12, 2005
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The idea that guzzling a few chocolate bars a day could actually be good for you may sound absurd. But according to research out from confectionery maker Mars, it really oculd be. The firm has just unveiled research done in conjunction with two US universities which shows that cocoa compounds could help treat diabetes, strokes, and vascular disease. The key to all this, says Mars, is flavanols, plant chemicals that occur in cocoa beans (and in red wine, green tea and tomatoes). These can lead to better circulation and lower blood pressure (helping diatetics), have some efficacy in thinning blood and also increase blood flow to the brain, giving hope that treatments for dementia could be developed from them. Mars also says it has discovered how to make synthetic versions of cocoa flavanols, holding out the prospect that these could be licensed to pharmaceuticals companies to develop a major new class of medications.
This all sounds pretty good, says the FT, but 'reaching for the nearest Mars Bar would be premature'. Let's not forget that this is the same firm that has supported some 'questionable' science in the pat - notably research that ended in a claim that chocolate was good for teeth. Companies don't produce this stuff out of the kindness of their corporate hearts, they do it as a way of placating existing customers and 'enticing new ones'. And Mars has clearly noticed an ongoing trend in the food market: the growth in sales of sweets has been slowing in recent years, whereas the market for 'functional' foods (such as probiotic yoghurts, calcium-fortified orange juice and the like) has been fast expanding. No wonder, then, that the firm intends to laucnh a new line of cocoa products with extremely high flavanol levels (a note for chocolate lovers: flavanols are very bitter, so don't expect these 'good for you' bars to be quite as tasty as the old-fashioned 'bad for you' ones).
Mars is not the only firm out there trying to take advantage of our conflicting desires - to eat chocolate but not to make ourselves fat or ill in the process. Cadbury has also been jumping on the bandwagon with great success, says The Daily Telegraph. Its 99-calorie chocolate bar - on sale everywhere and seen as a treat, but one that's not too indulgent - has been a huge success and the firm now intends to launch a series of 99-calorie snacks.
Expect this trend to continue, says Reuters. The bottom line is that both chocolate and cocoa producers (who have been suffering from falling cocoa prices for some years) want - and need - to sell more chocolate. It shouldn't be too hard to persuade the growing middle-class populations of countries such as India and China to eat more confectionery - they currently put away only 0.5kg a head per year. But in Europe, where the average person gets through a huge 12kg worth of cocoa every year, the sweet firms need a new way to get people to up their consumption: anything that suggests a product has health-giving properties should do the trick. Chocolate makers have to rid their prodcuts of a 'junk-food image', a speaker told a recent international cocoa seminar in Kuala Lumpur. Rather than take the blame for a lifestyle problem that has causes running far deeper than the availability of sweet snacks, chocolate makers have to go 'on the offensive', emphasising the good points of their products and creating new ones that cater to changing consumer demands.
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