Chocolate Lovers Pained by Candy Changes

For years, Sharon Leitner's candy bar of choice was Take 5. But this past spring, Leitner, 24, noticed a change.

"It just didn't taste like it used to," she said. The new taste was "more waxy and artificial."

A look at the bar's wrapper helped Leitner understand why: cocoa butter — which experts say helps give chocolate its smooth, creamy taste — wasn't on the candy's ingredients list.

In the United States, when a so-called chocolate bar doesn't include cocoa butter or includes other oils, it can't actually be labeled chocolate.

"According to the Food and Drug [Administration's] regulations for chocolate, cocoa butter is the required fat for chocolate," said Susan Smith, the spokeswoman for the National Confectioners Association.

[A] package of Milk Duds includes the label "made with Chocolate & Caramel." Candy critic Cybele May said that words and phrases such as "made with chocolate," "chocolatey" and "chocolate candy" are sometimes used by candymakers to describe candy that doesn't meet the federal government's standards for chocolate.