Compound chocolate is a product made from a combination of cocoa, vegetable fat and sweeteners. It is used as a lower-cost alternative to pure chocolate, as it uses less-expensive hard vegetable fats such as coconut oil or palm kernel oil in place of the more expensive cocoa butter.[1] It may also be known as "compound coating" or "chocolaty coating" when used as a coating for candy.[2]
It is often used in less expensive chocolate bars to replace enrobed chocolate on a product. True chocolate containing cocoa butter must be tempered to maintain gloss of a coating. Compound coatings, however, do not need to be tempered. Instead, they are simply warmed to between 3 and 5 °C (5 and 9 °F) above the coating's melting point.[citation needed]
In the European Union a product can only be sold as chocolate if it contains a maximum of 5% vegetable oil.[3][4]
^"Labelling Requirements for Confectionery, Chocolate and Snack Food Products". Canadian Food Inspection Agency. 29 November 2011. Archived from the original on 30 November 2018. Retrieved 3 June 2012. Compound coatings, which are products having the appearance but not the composition of chocolate, are often used as an outside layer or coating for biscuits, candy and frozen confections or as chips within baked goods. There should be no indication in the advertisements for these products that the coatings are "chocolate". However, 'chocolate flavoured', 'chocolate-like', and 'chocolatey' have been accepted as appropriate descriptions of such coatings and chips.
Dale, Stuart (2017). "Chocolate compounds and coatings". In Beckett, Stephen T; Fowler, Mark S; Ziegler, Gregory R (eds.). Beckett's Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use (5th ed.). West Sussex, UK: Wiley. ISBN9781118780145.
